Re: French gerunds

At 22:03 11.02.2003, Christophe wrote:

 >OK, just checked my booklet about Old French, and here is what I gather
from it:
 >
<snip great explanation>

Thanks, it certainly makes some sense.

>Historical linguistics are complicated in the matter of French verbs because
>Old French verbs suffered from so many alternations but most were levelled in
>various irregular ways (the problem with those alternations is that they had
>nearly no functional load, and thus were quickly but dirtily regularised,
>while
>sometimes non-regularised forms subsisted but as nouns or adjectives, like the
>previous "amant", but also "puissant": powerful which used to be the present
>participle of "pouvoir"), and our irregular verbs have remains of those times.
Don't get me started on French irregular verbs. (No, they aren't that bad
actually, but their spelling, like when changing the infinitive would make
the entire verb regular ... )

Yet, French is fun as soon as you get the spirit of it.

>It's not a trivial question, and my explanation is a bit crude, but you should
>get the jist of it :) .
At least I can pretend to understand it.


>Christophe.
Simen

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