The Subjunctive

Question

Hi,I'm doing B1 French and I generally understand the use of the subjunctive but got tripped up recently. The first example was " we want someone to guide us". ..."on veut que quelqu'un nous guide'

Am I right on thinking the subjunctive is guid+e relating to "on" which is 3rd person singular and therefore guide+e. Of course the " on veut que" demands the subjunctive.

In the second example " He wants that we guide him," ( Il veut que nous le guidions), the Subjunctive ending is guid+ions relating to "nous" which is 1st person plural therefore ends in "ions".

What adds to the confusion is that "on veut" is conjugated like "Il or "elle" but in informal use " on" can mean " we" which is "nous" in French. I hope I have explained everything well ( and as an aside j'éspere is not a Subjunctive trigger in the affirmative but is in the negative) so you may see why it's so difficult sometimes. Any comments gratefully received.

Answer

John,

the subject of the verb ‘ guider ‘ in ‘ on veut que quelqu'un nous guide ‘ is the indefinite pronoun ‘ quelqu’un ‘. The subjunctive form of the verb ‘ guider’ is therefore in third person singular - see 3rd link.

‘ On ‘ is the subject of ‘ vouloir (que) ‘ - the first clause.

In the 2nd sentence, the subject of ‘ guider ‘ is ‘ nous ‘, hence the first person plural form is needed.

You are right however that if the subject pronoun in the relative clause was ‘ on ‘, it would also conjugate in 3rd person singular.

Is this enough to answer your query, or were you seeking more information ?