subjunctive v indicative

HelenC1Kwiziq community member

subjunctive v indicative

hi 

can someone please explain why " je suis desolée que tu es triste" is in indicative but 

"je suis desolée que ton roman n'aie pas été publié en france "is in the subjunctive

i assume it is to do with negativity but the je suis desoléé hasn't changed

thanks


Asked 3 years ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Helen,

Normally, ‘être désolé que’ is followed by the subjunctive if the subject of the 2nd clause is not the same as in the main clause.

Je suis désolé que tu sois triste = I am sorry that you are sad

Je suis désolé que tu ne sois pas heureux = I am sorry that you are not happy

vs

Je suis désolé de t’avoir licencié = I am sorry that I made you redundant

Is it from one of our kwiz or exercises? If so, could you add the link to the related question/exercise please? It would make it easier to see if anything is amiss. Merci beaucoup.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée!

HelenC1Kwiziq community member

thankyou that makes more sense

no it was from a couple of different online translators which both gave the same answers but i'm learning not to completely trust google translate etc

MaartenC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

DeepL is probably more reliable than google (and at least gives some alternatives), but neither is great, and both often give literal and grammatically incorrect results in less common constructs. I also use wordreference for short phrases - it is reasonably good, especially for checking expressions.

subjunctive v indicative

hi 

can someone please explain why " je suis desolée que tu es triste" is in indicative but 

"je suis desolée que ton roman n'aie pas été publié en france "is in the subjunctive

i assume it is to do with negativity but the je suis desoléé hasn't changed

thanks


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
Getting that for you now...