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Tag Archives: subjunctive
Subjunctivitis
I mean, how often do you go to a garden centre and have a chance to study the subjunctive? There I was, enjoying the sunshine on Easter Monday, when I spotted a card on a plant written in French (the … Continue reading
All Present and Correct
After introducing a lot of new ideas in recent posts I thought we could just pause for breath here. Today I’d like to show you the huge importance of knowing the various forms of the present tense in French, as a … Continue reading
The Subjunctive: Major Uses
In this post I’m going to summarise the various “triggers” for the subjunctive under six major headings, which basically move from the most positive to the most negative words or feelings. Other guides may order them differently or use different labels, … Continue reading
Posted in French language
Tagged defective verb, imperfect tense, indicative, negatives, subjunctive, vouloir
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The Subjunctive: what’s its form?
In the previous post we looked at the concept of the subjunctive; and after that it should come as a major relief that the actual forms of the subjunctive in French are not at all difficult. Certainly they are a … Continue reading
The Subjunctive: what’s it for?
“But I was … drawn to Chuck. I had him down as a lover of contingencies and hypotheses, a man cheerfully operating in the subjunctive mood.” (J. O’Neill, Netherland, Harper Perennial, 2008, p.99) It may seem surprising, in a blog … Continue reading
Uses of the Imperative
The first and most obvious use of the imperative is precisely to give commands such as have been indicated above. When you see a road sign saying “Cédez le passage” it means Yield or Give Way (or else!). However, the … Continue reading
French can't be difficult 