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.
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.
Devoir
A Semi-Auxiliary Without Peer
The verb devoir in all its many forms and meanings: as a verb in its own right, but especially as a semi-auxiliary, in which capacity it performs an astonishing number of functions.
Compound Past and the Poet
Passé composé in Alfred de Musset's "Tristesse"
A grammatical and linguistic analysis of the poem “Tristesse” by Alfred de Musset, with special emphasis on the use of the passé composé, and an English translation.
House of Being Verbs
Verbes de la Maison d'Être
Verbs that form their compound tenses with étre are said to belong to the Maison d’Être, an absolutely hilarious jeu de mots. Herein the true raison d’être of the Maison d’Être is clearly presented.
Compound Past
The Ins & Outs of the Passé composé
The passé composé formed with avoir, with être; when the past participle agrees with…something…
To & Fro Twixt English & French Past Tenses
What Each Tense in One Language Can Be in the Other
A table showing what a French past tense can be in English and what an English past tense can be in French.
Aspects of French Past Tenses
On the great divide between the perfective (passé composé, passé simple) and the imperfective (imparfait) in French.
Je chante
Ficelle, tu m’a sauvé de la vie!
A very happy song about a singer, who sings day and night… Very, very upbeat… From the incomparable Charles Trenet.
La Mer
La mer a bercé mon cœur pour la vie
Is it schmaltz or is it poetry? Possibly both. Another great song from the incomparable Charles Trenet.
Aux Champs-Élysées
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez / Aux Champs-Elysées
The signature song (from 1969) of Joe Dassin. One of the positive remote effects of Hollywood blacklisting.
