12.9 Review — literary tenses — Epoché
What this lesson reviews The literary tenses of written French: the passé simple , which you have met in every story of this course and wrote yourself in 9.6 Writing ; the passé antérieur , its compound partner after quand , dès que , après que and aussitôt que ; and the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive, which you read in Descartes, Pascal and Proust, and need only to recognise. English has no equivalents for most of these forms, and French speakers themselves rarely use them in speech, so the goal is above all to read them without hesitation and to write the passé simple correctly. This lesson explains nothing new. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the French aloud; all of them come back below. French English Il rentra très tard chez lui, comme c'était souvent le cas. [1] He returned home very late, as was often the case. Avez-vous achevé votre travail ? [2] Are you finished with your work? Quand avez-vous achevé d'écrire la lettre ? [3] When did you finish writing the letter? Il rentra chez lui fort tard. [4] He came home very late. Il sortit en cachette pour rencontrer une fille. [5] He snuck out to meet up with a girl. Cela ne serait pas approprié. [6] That wouldn't be appropriate. Ce mot était-il approprié dans cette situation ? [7] Was that word appropriate in that situation? Il faut que je trouve une nouvelle cachette. [8] I need to find a new hiding place. Prerequisites : 12.8 — and in practice 3.15 Conjugation for reading the passé simple , 9.6 Writing for writing it, and the readings of volume 7. Work through the sections in order and score yourself at the end. Twenty sentences All twenty are real sentences from the corpus. Cover the English, translate the French, and name each literary form: which tense, which person, and which verb. French English Elle parla. [9] She spoke. Elle sortit. [10] She went out. Il partit. [11] He walked away. Ils gagnèrent. [12] They won. Ils s'amusèrent. [13] They enjoyed themselves. Il fut déçu. [14] He was disappointed. Il eut tort. [15] He was wrong. Ils furent victorieux. [16] They were victorious. Dès qu’il fut seul, il ouvrit la lettre. [17] As soon as he was left alone, he opened the letter. Aussitôt qu'il eut fini son travail, il retourna à la maison. [18] As soon as he finished his work, he went home. Après qu'ils eurent achevé leur travail, ils sortirent. [19] After they had finished their work, they went out. Dès qu’ils eurent disparu, l’écolier sortit de sa cachette. [20] As soon as they had disappeared, the schoolboy came out of his hiding place. Après qu'il eut entendu la tragique nouvelle, il sortit dehors pour être seul. [21] After hearing the tragic news, he went outside to be alone. Nous attendîmes qu'il fît son apparition. [22] We waited for him to turn up. J'aimerais qu'il fût ici pour nous aider. [23] I wish that he were here to help us. Il était absolument approprié qu'elle fît cela. [24] It was quite right of her to do that. C'eût été embarrassant. [25] That would've been embarrassing. C'eût été insupportable. [26] It would have been intolerable. Il n'y avait rien qu'il eût pu faire. [27] There was nothing he could have done. Bien qu'il fût très tard, il continua à travailler. [28] Though it was very late, he went on working. The groups: numbers 1 to 9 are the passé simple , third person singular and plural, regular and irregular; numbers 10 to 13 the passé antérieur followed by a passé simple ; numbers 14 to 16 the imperfect subjunctive; numbers 17 to 20 the pluperfect subjunctive, used here with the meaning of a past conditional. Recognising the forms A reminder in one table. Learn to recognise the endings; you will write only the first two rows. Form How to recognise it · example passé simple , third person singular -a , -it , -ut , -int , with no circumflex · il parla , il partit , il fut , il vint passé simple , third person plural -èrent , -irent , -urent , -inrent · ils gagnèrent , ils sortirent , ils furent passé antérieur eut or fut and a past participle, after a conjunction of time · dès qu'il eut fini imperfect subjunctive the same stem with a circumflex in the third person singular, -ât , -ît , -ût ; -asse , -isse , -usse elsewhere · qu'il fît , qu'il fût pluperfect subjunctive eût or fût and a past participle; often a literary past conditional · c'eût été The circumflex is the only difference in writing between il fut (he was) and qu'il fût (that he were), and between il fit and qu'il fît . In speech they sound the same. Dictation Five sentences to write in French from the English, in the passé simple and, where needed, the passé antérieur . She opened the door and went out. They arrived late and left early. As soon as he had finished, he went home. He was afraid, but he said nothing. When they had eaten, they sang. Read aloud Five of the twenty. Read each twice, and notice that the passé simple sounds natural only in a reading voice. Ils s'amusèrent. Dès qu'il fut seul, il ouvrit la lettre. Après qu'ils eurent achevé leur travail, ils sortirent. Nous attendîmes qu'il fît son apparition. C'eût été insupportable. Find the mistake Five sentences, each with exactly one error in a literary tense. Correct it and name the rule. Il vînt à la maison vers minuit. Cela fût très difficile. Ils parlèrent longtemps, puis ils partèrent. Nous attendîmes qu'il fit son apparition. Quand il a eu fini, il sortit. Practice Read and translate. Read them aloud, then translate each into English: Quand avez-vous remarqué que votre sac à main avait disparu ? [29] / C'était gentil de votre part de faire ça pour nous. [30] / J'aimerais t'aider, mais je suis très occupé pour le moment. [31] / Nous sommes venus ici pour vous aider à le faire. [32] / Il n'y avait absolument rien que vous puissiez y faire. [33] / Prenez votre temps. Nous avons toute l'après-midi pour faire les magasins. [34] Into French. Say these in French; every word has come up in the course: Frankly speaking, it's difficult to understand why you