The Elusive English Subjunctive
An Overview Almost as Brief as its Matter
A brief look at the use of the subjunctive mood (if any) in contemporary English.
Compound Past: Tips for Translating
Don't Let the Passé composé Trip You Up!
Certain forms of the passé composé or Compound Pass are easy to mistake for something they are not. Not only House-of-Being verbs, but pronominal verbs and verbs in the passive voice, when they are in the passé composé, may trick the inexperienced into thinking they are in some other tense.
French Verbs and their Favorite Past Tenses
Predilections of Classes of French Verbs
Tips for deciding between the imparfait and the passé composé in French, and in particular classes of verbs that tend to be in the one rather than the other.
Formation of the Present Subjunctive (and the Past)
One Rule to Govern Them All
The formation of the French present subjunctive, expressed as a Grand Unifying Rule (sort of). Plus: Where did irregular verbs come from? And: formation of the past subjunctive.
French Subjunctive, Main Uses
Splendeurs et mystères d'un mode verbal
The uses of the subjunctive in the three kinds of subordinate clauses: noun clauses, adverb clauses, and adjective clauses.
Indefinite Expressions Using the Subjunctive
When You Need to Cast the Net Widely
Whoever you may be, wherever you may come from, whatever you may do, and however you may do it: such vital indefinite expressions are among the ones presented here.
Avoir, Faire, et cetera: Verb-Noun Phrases
Combinations That May Trip You Up
A list of particularly useful expressions of the “verb-directly-followed-by-a-noun” variety, involving avoir, faire, and a few other verbs.
The French Literary Subjunctive: Formation
Forms You Won't Want To Be Without
Excellent tips for recognizing the imperfect (and the pluperfect) subjunctive.
The French Literary Subjunctive: Uses
When an Ordinary Tense Is Not Enough
The things literary subjunctive tenses can do, both their rather unsurprising uses in secondary sequence and their more remarkable ones in conditional sentences.
Concessive Conditions in Les Liaisons dangereuses
An Elegant Construction Still in Use Today
Examples of the conditionnel concessif from Chloderlos de Laclos’s famous epistolary novel of 1782. Some involve the conditional present introduced by quand (rather than the imperfect indicative introduced by si), and some involve the imperfect subjunctive.
Some Pronominal Verbs of Note
Many Are Strange; All Are Useful
A few French pronominal verbs (i.e., verbs used with reflexive pronouns) selected for discussion because they are strange, surprising, or useful. Also, some issues involving sub-groupings of pronominal verbs.
