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I saw this on social media:

Si tu pouvais avoir un million de dollars américains, mais que tu ne pouvais acheter que des choses commençant par la première lettre de ton prénom...qu'achèterais-tu ?

I was confused by the mais que. I've never seen that before. Is the "que" necessary there?

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This "que" serves as the 2nd "si":

Si tu pouvais avoir un million de dollars americains, mais si tu ne pouvais acheter que des choses commencant par la premiere lettre de ton prenom...qu'acheterais-tu ?

... in order to avoid the repetition of "si", "quand" etc.

This "que" usage also applies to "lorsque", "bien que" etc which already include "que" in their words.

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  • Les "si" n'aiment pas les "rais" → mais si tu ne pouvais acheter...
    – jlliagre
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 16:24
  • Indeed! I c&p'ed the sentence, wasn't paying attention.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 16:34
  • Je me demande si ce n'est pas "pouvait" aussi dans la phrase originale: "Si tu pouvais, mais que tu ne pouvais" parce que le "que" n'est pas relatif au million mais au "si". (@jlliagre) ?
    – lemon
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 17:16
  • @Alone-zee Hi, I'd say "Si tu pouvais avoir un million de dollars américains, mais que tu ne pouvais acheter etc." but "Si tu pouvais avoir un million de dollars américains, mais que tu ne pourrais utiliser seulement pour etc." because in the second sentence, "que" is relative to the million dollars.
    – lemon
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 17:25
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    But we have the "si"... so si je savais que tu ne pouvais and si je savais que tu ne pourrais have a different meaning. But in the question here, there is no expected "added conditional" aspect. @jlliagre and Alone-zee... probably I should ask a new question about that, don't you think?
    – lemon
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 18:04

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