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Specific circumstances triggering the subjunctive (3)The French subjunctive in relative clausesA common type of subordinate clause is the so-called relative clause. A relative clause 'restricts' the reference of something or shows how it is 'relative' to other possibilities. For example, consider the following sentences of English:
1. I'm looking for somebody
2. I'm looking for somebody who can help me  Suggest a change / proposez une modificationSentence (2) differs from (1) in having a relative clause, "who can help me". If you like, the relative clause shows what kind of person is being looked for, relative to all the possible people in the world that might be looked for. Now, the interesting thing about relative clauses for our discussion is that they may or may not express an assertion. Sentence (2) may be expressing the fact that there is a definite person who the speaker knows can help them (or at least, that the speaker knows that there exists such a person). Or it may be expressing something equivalent to (3): The implication in (3) is that the speaker is looking for a person that can help them if such a person exists. But they do not assert that such a person actually exists. In English, speakers don't always make the distinction between somebody and anybody: somebody can express either the assertion variant (2) or the non-assertive meaning as in (3). (Though anybody has to have the non-assertive meaning.)
In French, the distinction is conventionally made
by using the indicative for the assertive meaning as in (2), and the subjunctive for the
non-assertive meaning as in (3).
Here are the French equivalents of (2) with the assertive meaning and (3):
je cherche quelqu'un qui peut m'aider
I'm looking for somebody that can help me (and I know there's such a person) je cherche quelqu'un qui puisse m'aider I'm looking for somebody (=anybody) that can help me (whether or not they exist) Suggest a change / proposez une modificationNote that a common-- indeed possibly more common-- alternative to the subjuntive in the second case is to use a conditional: At the time of writing, Google reports 3,400 occurrences of je cherche quelqu'un qui puisse versus 11,900 of ... qui pourrait. In addition, many of the examples with ... qui peut look suspiciously as though they're intended to have the non-assertive interpretation. The use of the subjunctive in this type of relative clause is alive and kicking, but maybe not as clear cut as many grammars make out. Note that the subjunctive is also common with relative clauses introduced by où:
il me faut trouver un endroit où je puisse les mettre sur CD.
I need to find a place where I can put them on to CD Suggest a change / proposez une modificationNote also that there are a handful of noun phrases such as quoi que ce soit that, when they have a relative clause, by their very semantic nature really lend themselves to the subjunctive:
quoi que ce soit que tu fasses
whatever (it is that) you are doing Suggest a change / proposez une modificationAccording to Price (2001:378), the subjunctive "must" be used in this case, as with qui que ce soit qui/que. Google lists 4 occurrences of the phrase quoi que ce soit que tu fasses, versus a single instance with the indicative (in some song lyrics). With qui que ce soit qui, the conditional appears to be at least as common (around 2,000 occurrences of qui que ce soit qui pourrait on Google) though in many cases appears to have an assertive meaning. French subjunctive as the equivalent of English 'ever'We saw in a previous section that the subjunctive is triggered when the main clause contains a negative. We saw that this can be an actual negative construction such as (ne) ... pas, (ne) ... rien. Or it can be a negative adjective, verb or noun such as impossible, impossibilité, renier, douter or the word peu used to negate an adjective. There's also a type of construction where the main clause doesn't have a strictly negative meaning, but implies a kind of 'partial negation'. The common equivalent is the English word 'ever'. Consider the following: The main notion being expressed by this sentence is not the fact that the speaker has read the book, but more the fact that they haven't read other books: it's a kind of "implied negative". The French equivalent acts as though the main clause contains an actual negative, and triggers the subjunctive in the relative clause:
c'est le seul livre qu'il ait pu lire
it's the only book he's ever been able to read Suggest a change / proposez une modificationOther common contenders for triggering the subjunctive in this way are other words with 'superlative' meanings: premier, dernier, unique, meilleur, le plus ... que:
c'est le meilleur livre qu'il ait jamais lu
It's the best book he's ever read Suggest a change / proposez une modificationNote that English 'ever' has the restriction that it can't be used with a present tense verb. But the French subjunctive in relative clauses can be triggered by a present tense main verb. The nearest English equivalent is probably 'really' or 'in fact':
c'est le seul exemple que je puisse imaginer
it's the only example I can really think of il y a assez peu d'enfants qui soient uniquement français au lycée français there are fairly few children at the French high school who are in fact uniquely French Suggest a change / proposez une modificationThe equivalent of 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever'...The equivalent of these words in English also typically involve a French subjunctive. A few QU- words can be combined directly with que and a relative clause with a subjunctive:
où que tu sois
wherever you are qui que tu sois whoever you are quoi que tu fasses whatever you might be doing quel que soit le problème whatever/whichever the problem might be Suggest a change / proposez une modificationOthers have to be put into a pharaphrase, generally involving the subjunctive form quel(le) que soit:
quel que soit le moment où tu décides...
whenever you decide... quelle que soit la manière dont tu choisis... however you choose... quelles que soient les dimensions de la pièce... however small or large the room is... Suggest a change / proposez une modification
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