Hi Chris,

Your headline text would translate to "By the time he had taken his lunch, you can (be able to) take a shower". What you have translated is inaccurate (Deepl?) and misleading in trying to make your point.

Perhaps your point would attract a different statistic if you were to try again with a more accurate translation.

Jim

Agreed with Jim's reply. Your suggested translation is off the mark because it says that taking a shower takes place while he is having breakfast. The French use of the subjonctif passé makes a point in saying that you can take a shower once he has finished with his lunch.

Hi Jim, my french text and the translation are exact copies of the questions and answer on the KWIZ. Chris C1 I think you'll find 'dejeuner' is lunch, breakfast is 'petit dejeuner'.

Hi Chris,

OK, fair enough!     So the answer is to flag your point up with the help desk so that your point can be reviewed by them and a possible amendment made to the lesson for the benefit of all future users.

Bonne journée

Jim

@Chris: I'd be interested in a response from one of the ladies of the kwiziq team. My understanding is that the subjonctif passé is used when one action has definitely ended before the other one started. That would preclude having lunch while he is having a shower and finishing the shower by the time he finishes lunch. Rather, I understand it as that you can have your shower by the time he has finished lunch.

Chris: 'you can have your shower by the time he has finished lunch'. is not grammatical english. 'you could have' would work, though.

@Chris: It is grammatically correct alright but very ambiguous not good style. However, what I'm trying to say is that the French sentence with the past subjunctive, in my understanding, says something quite different from what you mention. It means that you can start showering once he has finished his lunch. And not that you have to be finished with your shower before he finishes his lunch. On that, though, I'd love some confirmation of the natives.

'you can start showering once he has finished his lunch' is, as you suggest, grammatical and sensible. But it's not the translation given by Kwiziq. Le temps que, is translated as 'By the time '. which in English is not at all the same as 'Once' 'Once', in English, means 'after'. 'By the time' x happens, is always followed by a verb in the past, because by the time means in the time that will have passed...x will have , could have , happened.

I’d be interested in a Team Member’s response to Chris’s interesting question. Setting aside the "ait pris" I also don’t think that "By the time he's had his lunch, you can have a shower." is grammatically concordant in English. You could say - 

when/after he’s had his lunch you can have a shower 

by the time he’s had his lunch you could have had a shower or

by the time he’s had his lunch you will be….