Although = bien que + Le Subjonctif or même si + L'Indicatif

In this case the "le" is purely phonetic. It is not a personal pronoun.

Hi Michelle,

L'on is an optional form of on and is used mainly in the literary domain after words ending in a vowel, notably single sylable words such as:  qui, que, ou, où, si, et, to aid euphony . It is never used after the word dont nor is it used before a word starting with 'l' to avoid the alliterative sound of two 'l's'

        si on loge chez moi... rather than  si l'on loge chez moi...

        où on l'avait vu rather than où l'on l'avait vu

In speech l'on is often used to avoid the sound of the vulgar homonym con in such phrases as:

Les toiles qu'on peut admirer au musée  which may be rendered as  Les toiles que l'on peut admirer au musée

Hope this helps,

Tom

Hi Marnie,

You cannot say in French for, it is/this is :

Il est mon frère, elle est ma sœur, elle est ma fille , il est mon oncle , elle  est Marie, il/elle est mon ami/e, il est mon prof. etc... 

you can only say:

c'est mon frère, c'est ma sœur , c'est ma fille, c'est mon oncle, c'est Marie, c'est mon copain/ma copine, c'est mon prof, etc.

Look at the following lesson :

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/revision/grammar/when-to-use-cest-or-il-est-elle-est-to-say-it-is

There is still a lot of confusion about this and we are on it but in the meantime if you look at the Q&A section at the bottom of this lesson and in particular at our answers you might get a flavour of what is correct and not.

Hope this helps!

Je sais bien que tu viens me voir demain. 

Here the bien is an adver to savoir and is distinct from the bien que meaning "although" and demanding the subjunctive. 

From what I understand, the imperfect subjunctive is archaic and that is the reason it would be considered preferable to use the present subjunctive. 

I think you're probably correct.

Hi Tom,

Yes of course you can use the imparfait after 'même si',  as in your example and the following one, 

"Même si je voulais le faire, je ne le ferais pas."

The point of the lesson is that it is a tense from the Indicative Mood and not the Subjunctive in the case of 'bien que'.

Hope this helps!

Cécile, thanks for your helpful reply.

It's just that the lesson specifically states :

"Même si can also mean even if / even though, however it's always followed by Le Présent Indicatif and never Le Subjonctif."

which would seem to mandate only the use of Le Présent de l'Indicatif to the exlusion of other tenses of l'Indicatif.

Thanks again.

Bonjour Tom !

Thanks very much for your feedback!

Indeed, the lesson needed to be updated as "même si" can be followed by any tense in L'Indicatif :)

It's now done!

Merci et bonne journée !