"As soon as he drinks, he is bad."

Translation: Dès qu'il boit, il est mauvais.

[pachamami]

I thought "méchant" specifically meant "mean", not "bad".

[Sitesurf]

It really depends how "bad" he becomes and in which way: does he become violent? mean? offensive? gloomy?

[sunchild81]

Can someone please explain when (not) to use "c'est".
Because I'm just not getting it. This time i wrote "dès qu'il boit, c'est mauvais"
Not understanding why that is wrong, even the hint said it..

[Sitesurf]

"il est" + adjective remains as such: he is bad = il est mauvais

"il est + article + noun" changes to c'est + article + noun: he is a bad man = c'est un homme mauvais

[sunchild81]

That easy huh!? Thanx-a-Lot!

[TimeForStories]

Thank you so much. This has been bothering me for ages!

[chlomama90]

I have been looking for a clear, concise answer to this for a while and this is the first best I've come across. THANK YOU!!!!

[mariapiqui]

Brilliant! Hahaa thanks a lot!!

[Bostonvaulter]

Why not use mauvais instead of méchant? Does mauvais not apply to people?

[wandabee]

Méchant has not been introduced yet, and it was given in one of the questions where you choose the questions to comprise a sentence :-(

[divinevalley]

I don't understand the tenses. I thought you were supposed to use the future tense?

[Sitesurf]

The present tense here, in English as in French, expresses a habit. "every time he drinks, he gets bad".

[divinevalley]

I just remember from french class, even though "as soon as" only uses present tense in english, it requires future tense in french.

[Sitesurf]

In that case, both sentences would have been different:

• as soon as he drinks, he will be bad
• dès qu'il boira, il sera mauvais.

[divinevalley]

yup!
so what I'm asking is, is it correct to use the present tense? I thought that "des que" always had to be followed by the future tense (in both clauses).

[Sitesurf]

please read again my previous comments, everything is there.
to sum it up, yes it is correct to use the present tense, both in French and in English.

[Onoszko]

Context? Seems weird.

[j.wilder]

Jane: "Paul seems like a really nice guy."

Mary: "So you'd think, but as soon as he drinks, he's bad."

[Glat64]

pas... il est mal ???

[Sitesurf]

"il est mal" is not quite correct. However, it is frequently used to mean "he feels bad" or "he is in a bad position".

Here the meaning of "he is bad" is "he is mean, aggressive, wicked, brutal...", so "mauvais" is a good translation.