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Re: past tense imperative

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Friday, April 15, 2005, 21:02
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@H...> wrote:

>There's a "past tense" in the imperative mood in French.. But it's >only a name, when analysed it's obvious that it's in fact >imperative, perfective, and future.
>Anyway, what I know is that it's always hard to translate that form, >is there a future imperative equivalence I'm not awared in English?
>present -> travaille! = work! >past -> ai travaillé! = ~have worked!~ (would it really mean >omething in english?)
>In a full sentence, it could be:
>Toi! Ai travaillé quand je serai revenu! = You! I want you to
have
>worked when I'll be back
I never heard of that, but it sounds good to me! I would translate that sentence literally as "Have worked when I will have returned." Loosely: "Get that work done by the time I get back!" In Senyecan all the verb tenses and aspects have imperatives, but I don't know how to use them all. This example gives me some ideas. Thanks! Charlie http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur