- When que is used to join two parts of a sentence, it means that.
| Il dit qu’il m’aime. | He says that he loves me. |
| Elle sait que vous êtes là. | She knows that you’re here. |
TipIn English you could say both He says he loves me and He says that he loves me, or She knows you’re here and She knows that you’re here.
You can NEVER leave out que in French in the same way.
- que is also used when you are comparing two things or two people. In this case, it means as or than.
| Ils n’y vont pas aussi souvent que nous. | They don’t go as often as us. |
| Les melons sont plus chers que les bananes. | Melons are more expensive than bananas. |
- Some words which give you information about when something happens, can also be conjunctions if you put que after them. pendant que (meaning while) is the most common of these.
| Christian a téléphoné pendant que Chantal prenait son bain. | Christian phoned while Chantal was in the bath. |
- Note that when pendant que (meaning while), quand (meaning when) and lorsque (meaning when) are used to talk about something that will happen in the future, the French verb has to be in the future tense even though English uses a verb in the present tense.
| Pendant que je serai en France, j’irai les voir. | I’ll go and visit them while I’m in France. |
Grammar Extra!que can replace another conjunction to avoid having to repeat it.| Quand tu seras plus grand et que tu auras une maison à toi, … | When you’re older and you have a house of your own, … |
| Comme il pleut et que je n’ai pas de parapluie, … | As it’s raining and I don’t have an umbrella, … |