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French imparfait confusion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| frankgore Newbie Korea, South Joined 3613 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 4 10 February 2015 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm trying to understand the following use of the
imparfait. Qu'il allait nous mordre tous Does that work like the English 'it was going to bite us all'? Hasn't happened yet but will/may? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5326 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 4 10 February 2015 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
Sounds like a subordinate clause where imparfait is used because the verb in the main clause is in the past tense, something like "il a dit qu'il allait nous mordre tous" (He said he was going to bite us all). 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frankgore Newbie Korea, South Joined 3613 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 4 11 February 2015 at 2:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, that makes sense. It was part of a longer sentence as you mentioned above.
So the because the verb in the main clause in in the past tense (a dit), the subordinate must be also in the past tense? Must the subordinate clause always be in the imparfait? Thanks for your help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5326 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 4 11 February 2015 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, the subordinate clause must also be in the past. This isn't necessarily always the case in the spoken language, but it should be in writing. I'd say the verb (or auxillary verb) is probably always imparfait.
You'll find more information on this if you look up "concordance des temps". Edited by Arekkusu on 11 February 2015 at 3:01pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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