French Literary Tenses - Temps littéraires

There are five French past tenses that are not used in spoken French. They are called literary or historical tenses because they are reserved for written French, such as LiteratureJournalismHistorical textsNarration At one time, literary tenses were used in spoken French, but they have gradually disappeared. When they are used, they raise the speakers register to an extremely refined (some might even say snobbish) level of French. They may also be used for humorous effect. For example, in the French movie Ridicule, the aristocracy use literary tenses in their word games, in order to make themselves sound more educated and refined. Each of the literary tenses has a non-literary equivalent; however, there are subtle nuances that are lost when using the equivalents. Most of these nuances dont exist in English, so I explain the difference in my lessons. Because literary tenses are not used in spoken French, you need to be able to recognize them, but you will most likely never need to conjugate them. Even in written French, most of the literary tenses are disappearing. The passà © simple is still used, but the others are often replaced by their spoken equivalents or by other verbal constructions. Some say that the disappearance of literary tenses leaves gaping holes in the French language - what do you think? Literary tenses  are not used in spoken French - they have non-literary equivalents, explained here. For a definition of literary tenses and a description of where/when they are used, please read the  introduction.Click the name of each literary tense to learn more about to conjugate and use it.I. Passà © simpleThe passà © simple  is the literary simple past tense. Its English equivalent is the preterite or simple past.Il  choisit.- He chose.The spoken French equivalent is the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  - the English present perfect.Il  a choisi.  - He has chosen. You can see that by not using the  passà © simple  and the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  together, the  French language  has lost the nuance between he chose and he has chosen. The  passà © simple  indicates an action that is complete and has no relationship to the present, whereas using the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  indicates a relationship with the present.II.  Passà © antà ©rieurThe passà © antà ©rieur  is the literary compound past tense.Quand il  eut choisi, nous rà ®mes.  - When he had chosen, we laughed.Its equivalent in spoken French is the  plus-que-parfait  (the English pluperfect or past perfect).Quand il  avait choisi, nous avons ri.  - When he had chosen, we laughed.The  passà © antà ©rieur  expresses an action that took place right before the action in the main verb (expressed by the  passà © simple). Aside from being extremely rare in spoken French, the  passà © antà ©rieur  is even disappearing in written French, as it can be replaced by several different constructions (see the lesson on the  past anterior  for more information).III. Imparfait  du subjonctif*The imparfait du subjonctif  is the literary simple past subjunctive.br/>Jai voulu quil  choisà ®t.  - I wanted him to choose. (I wanted that he chose)Its spoken French equivalent is the  present subjunctive.Jai voulu quil  choisisse.  - I wanted him to choose. (I wanted that he choose)The distinction lost here is this: by using the imperfect subjunctive in French, both the main clause (I wanted) and the  subordinate clause  (that he chose) are in the past, whereas in the spoken French, the subordinate clause is in the present (that he choose).IV.  Plus-que-parfait  du subjonctif*The plus-que-parfait du subjonctif  is the literary compound past subjunctive.Jaurais voulu quil  eà »t choisi.  - I would have wanted him to choose.(I would have wanted that he had chosen)Its spoken French equivalent is the  past subj unctive.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jaurais voulu quil  ait choisi.  - I would have wanted him to choose.  Ã‚  Ã‚  (I would have wanted that he has chosen)This distinction is even more subtle, and is a combination of the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  and  imparfait du subjonctif  nuances: by using the  plus-que-parfait du subjonctif, the action is in the remote past and has no relationship to the present (that he had chosen), whereas using the past subjunctive indicates a slight relationship with the present (that he has chosen).br/>V.  Seconde forme du conditionnel passà ©The  conditional perfect, second form, is the literary conditional past.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Si je leus vu, je leusse achetà ©.  - If I had seen it, I would have bought it.Its spoken French equivalent is the  conditional perfect.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Si je lavais vu, je laurais achetà ©.  - If I had seen it, I would have bought it.The use of the second form of the conditional perfect emphasizes the fact that I didnt buy it, whe reas the non-literal conditional perfect makes it sound more like a opportunity that just happened to be missed. *The English equivalents for these two literary tenses are unhelpful, because English rarely uses the subjunctive. I gave the literal, ungrammatical English translation in parentheses simply to give you an idea of what the French structure is like. Summary Literary tense Literary tense classification Non-literary equivalent pass simple simple past pass compos pass antrieur compound past plus-que-parfait imparfait du subjonctif simple past subjunctive subjonctif plus-que-parfait du subjonctif compound past subjunctive subjonctif pass 2e forme du conditionnel pass conditional past conditionnel pass More Literary French The  present subjunctive  has some literary uses.Certain verbs can be negated with the  ne littà ©raire.In literary French, the  negative adverb  ne... pas  is replaced by  ne... point.