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French · Chapter 19 · Lesson 15 · Grammar primer

The subjunctive after necessity and will

il faut que, vouloir que, il vaut mieux que and the rest of the necessity-and-will triggers, governed by the different-subject rule: je veux partir (same subject, infinitive) vs je veux que tu partes (different subjects, subjunctive).

The short version

One subject takes an infinitive, two take que

Je veux partir and je veux que tu partes look alike in English but are built completely differently. Same subject on both verbs means an infinitive and no que. Different subjects force que plus the subjunctive. Je veux que je parte is simply impossible in French.

Je veux que tu partes.

I want you to leave.

That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.

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Lesson 15 of 23 in this chapter

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