Joining Sentences Together with 'Inifinitif' and 'Subjonctif'

Warning: this post tackles some complex grammar. If you are anything like me, reading this may well make your head spin. Recommended only to those who are daring, and who have an inkling of what the infinitif and subjontif are already.

In the past, we've looked at ways to make our sentences more complex. Today, we're looking at joining two sentences together: the first one being a statement, and the second being an explanation. 

Here's an example: 

Adrienne est triste.  (statement)

Son chien est mort. (explanation)

'Adrienne is sad. Her dog died.'

And another example:

Adrienne est exasperé. (statement)

Elle a encore perdu ses clés de voiture.  (explanation)

'Adreienne is annoyed. She has lost her car keys again.'

Now, notice that in the first example, the second sentence, the explanation, refers to son chien, Adrienne's dog. This means we use the subjontif:

Adrienne est triste que son chien sois mort.

This is similar in format to the English equivalent:

'She is sad that her dog died'

But beware- don't forget to match verbs to the subjontif form. 

In the second example, we are still talking about Adrienne in the explanatory sentence. Unlike in English, where you can say 'Adrienne is annoyed that she has lost her keys again', in french using the subjontif is a no-no. 

Instead, we must pull out the infinitif. So,

Adrienne est exasperé. (statement)

Elle a encore perdu ses clés de voiture.  (explanation)

becomes:

Adrienne est exasperé d'avoir encore perdu ses clés de voiture.  

Can you see what went on here? The verb avoir has been taken from the form in the explanation (Elle a)

and used to join the sentences. It's like saying in English that 'Adrienne is annoyed to have lost her keys again'. Ok, it's a pretty old fashioned way of speaking, but I find it helps me construct my sentences using the infinitif. 

So to sum up the lesson for today, 

Join a statement to an explanation with:

1) Infinitif- when there is one subject (it's all about me/Adrienne/whoever-or-whatever-is-doing-the-action)

or

2)Subjontif- when the explanation is about a second subject (two different people/items doing the action in each phrase)

I hope that this has helped relieve confusion and not made it worse!