"As soon as he drinks, he is bad."
Translation:Dès qu'il boit, il est mauvais.
20 Comments
It really depends how "bad" he becomes and in which way: does he become violent? mean? offensive? gloomy?
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..
"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
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!!!!
Why not use mauvais instead of méchant? Does mauvais not apply to people?
I don't understand the tenses. I thought you were supposed to use the future tense?
The present tense here, in English as in French, expresses a habit. "every time he drinks, he gets bad".
I just remember from french class, even though "as soon as" only uses present tense in english, it requires future tense in french.
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.
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).
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.
Jane: "Paul seems like a really nice guy."
Mary: "So you'd think, but as soon as he drinks, he's bad."
"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.
