Re: French

Quoth Axiem:
> French has 14 tenses, 7 simple, 7 compound..the tenses are (IIRC)
> simple, passe compose, conditional, condtional past, futur, future
> perfect, past simple, (I forget), imparfait, plusqueparfait,
> subjenctive, subjunctive past, and something with futur anterier or
> something...
The ones you forgot are the subjonctif imparfait (simple), and the pass=E9
anterieur and subjonctif plus-que-parfait (both composite), but you
listed the futur ant=E9rieur twice (once as "future perfect").

> i rely on '501 French Verbs' and it says that subjunctive, passe
> simple, and the other one (plus the compound tenses formed from them)
> aren't really used in conversational French, only in writing (and also
> that they're going out of style in writing),=20
The pass=E9 simple is still alive in modern written French, at least in
literary French (I see it in novels, e.g.), but is replaced in spoken
French by the pass=E9 compos=E9.  The pass=E9 ant=E9rieur (compound based on
pass=E9 simple) and the subjonctif imparfait and subj. plus-que-parfait
appear to be rare even in written French.... but plain old subjonctif is
alive and well in modern spoken and written French.

--=20
-=3D-Don Blaheta-=3D-=3D-dpb@cs.brown.edu-=3D-=3D-<http://www.cs.brown.edu/=
~dpb/>-=3D-
"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and
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