present vs past with le temps que

Eric D.C1Kwiziq community member

present vs past with le temps que

In the quiz there was this sentence:  By the time you were ready, the bus had already gone. We had to write the part up to the comma.

The answer given was Le temps que tu sois prête....  That to me translates as By the time you are ready, not were ready.  How would you write:  By the time you are ready the bus will be already gone.

Asked 1 year ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Eris,

You cannot have "by the time you are ready" as the main part of the sentence is "the bus had already gone" and the tense used is the Pluperfect. Therefore, the second part of the sentence could not be conjugated in the Present tense but in the Past Simple in English due to the verb tense consistency.

To write "By the time you are ready, the bus will be already gone.", you would translate as below:

Le temps que tu sois prête, le bus sera déjà parti. -> main sentence in Le Futur Antérieur / second part in Le Subjonctif présent

Here another example from the lesson using Le Futur Antérieur in the main sentence too:

J'aurai fini de vérifier mes emails le temps qu'elle prenne sa douche =I'll have finished checking my emails in the time she takes a shower.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

present vs past with le temps que

In the quiz there was this sentence:  By the time you were ready, the bus had already gone. We had to write the part up to the comma.

The answer given was Le temps que tu sois prête....  That to me translates as By the time you are ready, not were ready.  How would you write:  By the time you are ready the bus will be already gone.

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