Infinitive or Subjunctive: The Same-Subject Rule

Every subjunctive page on this site mentions this rule in passing and then gets on with its trigger list. That is the wrong emphasis, because the rule is worth more than any of the lists. It tells you when not to write a subjunctive, and roughly half the subjunctives learners produce are subjunctives that should never have been written at all.

The rule: when both verbs belong to the same subject, French drops the que clause and uses an infinitive.

• Je veux partir. (I want to leave.) - one subject. Infinitive.
• Je veux que tu partes. (I want you to leave.) - two subjects. que + subjunctive.

Nothing in the English signals the difference. "I want to leave" and "I want you to leave" are built the same way. In French they are different constructions, and using the wrong one is an error, not a stylistic preference. Je veux que je parte is not stiff French; it is broken French.

There is a logic behind it, which stops the rule feeling arbitrary. que exists to introduce a new subject; if the second verb has the same subject as the first, there is no new subject to introduce, so the whole apparatus of que plus a conjugated verb is doing no work. French takes the economy. The same principle gives you j'aime nager rather than j'aime que je nage.

Verbs of will take a bare infinitive

The verbs on the necessity and will list take the infinitive with no linker at all when the subject is shared.

Also bare: désirer, compter, oser, devoir, pouvoir, savoir, aller, venir and the modal-ish verbs generally. No de, no à, just the infinitive.

Emotion verbs and impersonals take de

The emotion triggers take de before the infinitive, as do most impersonal expressions.

The impersonal row is worth a second look. il est important que and il est important de are not same-subject and different-subject versions of each other exactly; the de version simply names nobody, and states the requirement in general. That is often what you want, and it is always safer than a subjunctive you are unsure of.

Two impersonals go bare rather than taking de: il faut and il vaut mieux.

• Il faut partir. (We need to leave. / One must leave.) versus Il faut que tu partes. (You need to leave.)
• Il vaut mieux attendre. (It is better to wait.) versus Il vaut mieux que tu attendes.

Every conjunction and its infinitive form

The conjunction list is where this rule pays best, because each conjunction has its own infinitive shape and they are not predictable. Learn them as pairs.

Two of those deserve their own note. sans takes a bare infinitive with no de, which surprises people because almost everything else in the column takes one. And après takes a perfect infinitive, which is the subject of the next section.

sans le savoir versus sans qu'il le sache

The sans pair is the neatest demonstration of the rule on the page, because the two versions sit so close together.

• Il est parti sans le savoir. (He left without knowing it.) - he left, he did not know. One subject.
• Il est parti sans que nous le sachions. (He left without our knowing.) - he left, we did not know. Two subjects.

Note where the object pronoun goes. With the infinitive it sits directly before the infinitive: sans le savoir, sans nous dire au revoir. With the que clause it sits before the conjugated verb as normal: sans que nous le sachions.

And note the negative infinitive while you are here, because it is formed differently from a negative conjugated verb: ne and pas stay together in front of the infinitive.

• Je préfère ne pas y aller. (I prefer not to go.)
• Elle regrette de ne pas pouvoir rester. (She is sorry she cannot stay.)
• Not ne aller pas.

après avoir, après être: the perfect infinitive

après cannot take a plain infinitive, because it points at something already finished. It takes avoir or être plus a past participle, chosen by exactly the same auxiliary rules as the passé composé.

• Après avoir mangé, il est parti. (After eating, he left.)
• Après avoir fini ses devoirs, elle a regardé un film. (After finishing her homework, she watched a film.)
• Après être arrivée, elle a téléphoné. (After arriving, she rang.) - être verb, participle agrees with the feminine subject.
• Après s'être levé, il a pris une douche. (After getting up, he had a shower.) - reflexive, so être, and agreement follows.

If the subjects differ, there is no infinitive available and you go back to après que with the indicative: après qu'il est parti, nous avons mangé.

The error to avoid is après manger on the English model of "after eating". A plain infinitive after après is not French.

The four conjunctions with no escape hatch

Not every trigger has an infinitive form. These four keep que and the subjunctive even with one subject:

• bien que and quoique (although): Bien que je sois fatigué, je continue. (Although I am tired, I am carrying on.)
• jusqu'à ce que (until): Je travaillerai jusqu'à ce que je finisse. (I will work until I finish.)
• pourvu que (provided that): Pourvu que j'aie le temps, je le ferai.

There is no bien que plus infinitive and no bien que de. If you want an infinitive or a lighter structure, you have to rewrite: malgré ma fatigue, je continue, or tout en étant fatigué, je continue.

The verbs that prefer an infinitive even with two subjects

One important widening of the rule. A group of verbs takes an infinitive even when the two verbs have different subjects, because the second subject is already present in the sentence as an object pronoun. These are the à quelqu'un de faire verbs.

• Je lui ai demandé de partir. (I asked him to leave.) - not je lui ai demandé qu'il parte.
• Je lui ai dit de venir. (I told her to come.)
• Il nous a permis de sortir. (He allowed us to go out.)
• Elle m'a conseillé de refuser. (She advised me to refuse.)

The family: demander à, dire à, permettre à, conseiller à, ordonner à, défendre à, promettre à, proposer à. In every case the person is the indirect object and the infinitive follows with de. Verbs of perception and the causatives do the same with a direct object: je l'ai vu partir (I saw him leave), je le laisse partir (I am letting him go).

What you cannot do is extend this to vouloir. Je le veux partir is not possible; vouloir with a different subject always takes que plus the subjunctive: je veux qu'il parte.

Worked examples

• Je suis heureux de vous rencontrer. (I am pleased to meet you.) - one subject, emotion adjective, so de + infinitive.
• Je suis heureux que vous soyez venus. (I am pleased you came.) - two subjects, so subjunctive.
• Elle est partie sans nous prévenir. (She left without warning us.) - one subject, sans + bare infinitive, pronoun before it; sans que nous le sachions once there are two.
• Il faut réserver à l'avance. (You need to book in advance.) - no named subject, bare infinitive; il faut que tu réserves once the subject is named.
• Après avoir visité le musée, nous avons déjeuné. (After visiting the museum, we had lunch.) - perfect infinitive.
• Bien que nous soyons en retard, nous y allons. (Although we are late, we are going.) - no infinitive available, subjunctive stays.

Common mistakes English speakers make

The headline error is the one the rule exists to stop: a que clause with a repeated subject, "je veux que je parte", "je suis content que je vienne", "je travaille pour que je réussisse". Every one of those needs an infinitive. The second error is the right structure with the wrong linker, which is more common in good students than the first: je veux de partir (no de after a verb of will), je suis content venir (missing de), sans de dire (sans never takes one). Learn the linker with the expression rather than guessing. The third is a plain infinitive after après, on the English model: it must be après avoir mangé or après être arrivé, and the être version agrees with the subject. The fourth is inventing an infinitive for the four conjunctions that have none, giving "bien que d'être fatigué"; those keep the subjunctive whatever the subjects do. The fifth is splitting the negative around an infinitive: it is ne pas partir, both words in front, not ne partir pas. Finally, do not overshoot into using an infinitive everywhere. Two genuinely different subjects require que plus the subjunctive, and je veux tu partir is no better than the error it was trying to avoid.

See also

• The subjunctive after necessity and will page covers il faut que, vouloir que and the verbs whose infinitive is bare.
• The subjunctive after doubt, emotion and opinion page covers the emotion triggers that take de before an infinitive.
• The subjunctive after conjunctions page covers the conjunction list this page pairs with infinitive forms.
• The subjunctive or indicative page covers the mood choice once you have established that a que clause is needed at all.
• The present subjunctive formation page covers how to build the forms used here.
• The French grammar cheatsheet covers the whole A1-B2 grammar map at a glance.