Identifying bien que not bien as an adjective

Question

"Je l'aime bien qu'il soit un peu paresseux." - how can we identify here that the bien is part of bien que and not an adjective?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Belinda,

It has to be "bien que" because otherwise the meaning is weird. If "bien" were an adverb here, it would break it down as

Je l'aime bien = I like him
qu'il soit un peu paresseux = a third person command: "may he be a bit lazy." Since that clearly makes no sense, we know that bien goes with the que.

Does that make sense?

Answer

Hi Laura,

Yes I thought you'd say that, but thought I would check.

Cheers

Answer

For me, the problem of understanding the French sentence often  lies in my reading the sentence too slowly. Take the sentence in question. If I read it slowly, I am liable to see "bien" by itself. However, reading it fast enough makes it (to me) clearly "bien qu'il", and the meaning is clear.