Avant que question

Michelle P.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Avant que question

Is this also used if you want to use "before I'd do that" in a sense of "I'd never do that". I don't know if this makes sense, I mean like "I'd die before I'd do that". Or would that be a hypothetical clause?

Asked 5 years ago
Phoebe Sparrow W.A0Kwiziq community member

This phrase is better said this way: I’d die before I did that. Or in French « Je mourrais avant que je ne le fasse. »  or I’d die before I did such a thing. « Je mourrais avant que je ne fasse une telle chose. »

Michelle P.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Well, yes, it is perhaps better said in the conditional (in English) but I rarely hear it used that way outside of written works. The perhaps not quite correct form I used as an example is what I'm used to hearing and saying. 

Thank you for the answer, though. Good riming, though I by now would have guessed that you'd express it exactly as you did in your example, as I just started tackling the C1 assignments again. I'm afraid that I just started using Si clauses to get the same point across without avant que in the mean time.

Avant que question

Is this also used if you want to use "before I'd do that" in a sense of "I'd never do that". I don't know if this makes sense, I mean like "I'd die before I'd do that". Or would that be a hypothetical clause?

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Thinking...