Saturday, November 23, 2019
French Literary Tenses - Temps littéraires
French Literary Tenses - Temps littà ©raires There are five French past tenses that are not used in spoken French. They are called literary or historical tenses because they are reserved for written French, such as LiteratureJournalismHistorical textsNarration At one time, literary tenses were used in spoken French, but they have gradually disappeared. When they are used, they raise the speakers register to an extremely refined (some might even say snobbish) level of French. They may also be used for humorous effect. For example, in the French movie Ridicule, the aristocracy use literary tenses in their word games, in order to make themselves sound more educated and refined. Each of the literary tenses has a non-literary equivalent; however, there are subtle nuances that are lost when using the equivalents. Most of these nuances dont exist in English, so I explain the difference in my lessons. Because literary tenses are not used in spoken French, you need to be able to recognize them, but you will most likely never need to conjugate them. Even in written French, most of the literary tenses are disappearing. The passà © simple is still used, but the others are often replaced by their spoken equivalents or by other verbal constructions. Some say that the disappearance of literary tenses leaves gaping holes in the French language - what do you think? Literary tensesà are not used in spoken French - they have non-literary equivalents, explained here. For a definition of literary tenses and a description of where/when they are used, please read theà introduction.Click the name of each literary tense to learn more about to conjugate and use it.I. Passà © simpleThe passà © simpleà is the literary simple past tense. Its English equivalent is the preterite or simple past.Ilà choisit.- He chose.The spoken French equivalent is theà passà © composà ©Ã - the English present perfect.Ilà a choisi.à - He has chosen. You can see that by not using theà passà © simpleà and theà passà © composà ©Ã together, theà French languageà has lost the nuance between he chose and he has chosen. Theà passà © simpleà indicates an action that is complete and has no relationship to the present, whereas using theà passà © composà ©Ã indicates a relationship with the present.II.à Passà © antà ©rieurThe passà © antà ©rieurà is the literary compound past tense.Quand ilà eut choisi, nous rà ®mes.à - When he had chosen, we laughed.Its equivalent in spoken French is theà plus-que-parfaità (the English pluperfect or past perfect).Quand ilà avait choisi, nous avons ri.à - When he had chosen, we laughed.Theà passà © antà ©rieurà expresses an action that took place right before the action in the main verb (expressed by theà passà © simple). Aside from being extremely rare in spoken French, theà passà © antà ©rieurà is even disappearing in written French, as it can be replaced by several different constructions (see the lesson on theà past anteriorà for more information).III. Imparfaità du subjonctif*The imparfait du subjonctifà is the literary simple past subjunctive. Jai voulu quilà choisà ®t.à - I wanted him to choose. (I wanted that he chose)Its spoken French equivalent is theà present subjunctive.Jai voulu quilà choisisse.à - I wanted him to choose. (I wanted that he choose)The distinction lost here is this: by using the imperfect subjunctive in French, both the main clause (I wanted) and theà subordinate clauseà (that he chose) are in the past, whereas in the spoken French, the subordinate clause is in the present (that he choose).IV.à Plus-que-parfaità du subjonctif*The plus-que-parfait du subjonctifà is the literary compound past subjunctive.Jaurais voulu quilà eà »t choisi.à - I would have wanted him to choose.(I would have wanted that he had chosen)Its spoken French equivalent is theà past subjunctive.à à à Jaurais voulu quilà ait choisi.à - I would have wanted him to choose.à à à (I would have wanted that he has chosen)This distinction is even more subtle, and is a combination of theà passà © composà ©Ã andà imparfait du subjonctifà nuances: by using theà plus-que-parfait du subjonctif, the action is in the remote past and has no relationship to the present (that he had chosen), whereas using the past subjunctive indicates a slight relationship with the present (that he has chosen). V.à Seconde forme du conditionnel passà ©Theà conditional perfect, second form, is the literary conditional past.à à à Si je leus vu, je leusse achetà ©.à - If I had seen it, I would have bought it.Its spoken French equivalent is theà conditional perfect.à à à Si je lavais vu, je laurais achetà ©.à - If I had seen it, I would have bought it.The use of the second form of the conditional perfect emphasizes the fact that I didnt buy it, whereas the non-literal conditional perfect makes it sound more like a opportunity that just happened to be missed. *The English equivalents for these two literary tenses are unhelpful, because English rarely uses the subjunctive. I gave the literal, ungrammatical English translation in parentheses simply to give you an idea of what the French structure is like. Summary Literary tense Literary tense classification Non-literary equivalent pass simple simple past pass compos pass antrieur compound past plus-que-parfait imparfait du subjonctif simple past subjunctive subjonctif plus-que-parfait du subjonctif compound past subjunctive subjonctif pass 2e forme du conditionnel pass conditional past conditionnel pass More Literary French Theà present subjunctiveà has some literary uses.Certain verbs can be negated with theà ne littà ©raire.In literary French, theà negative adverbà ne... pasà is replaced byà ne... point.
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