Language/French/Grammar/Other-tenses-indicating-the-time-at-which-events-occur-relative-to-other-events

Tenses that indicate the time at which events occur relative to other events

Here's a lesson on other tenses that indicate the time at which events occur relative to other events:

In addition to the present, past, and future tenses, French has several other tenses that are used to indicate the time at which events occur relative to other events. These tenses include the passé composé, the imparfait, the plus-que-parfait, and the passé antérieur.

Passé Composé

The passé composé is used to talk about completed actions that took place in the past. It is formed using the auxiliary verb "avoir" or "être" and the past participle of the main verb. The passé composé is often used to indicate a specific event that happened in the past.

Example: Hier, j'ai mangé une pizza. (Yesterday, I ate a pizza.)

Imparfait

The imparfait is used to describe ongoing or repeated actions that took place in the past. It is formed by adding the appropriate endings to the stem of the verb in the present tense, removing the "-ons" ending. The imparfait is often used to indicate background information or set the scene in a story.

Example: Quand j'étais jeune, je jouais souvent au football. (When I was young, I used to play soccer often.)

Plus-Que-Parfait

The plus-que-parfait is used to describe actions that took place before another action in the past. It is formed using the auxiliary verb "avoir" or "être" in the imparfait tense and the past participle of the main verb. The plus-que-parfait is often used to indicate a sequence of events.

Example: J'avais mangé avant d'aller au cinéma. (I had eaten before going to the movies.)

Passé Antérieur

The passé antérieur is used to describe actions that took place before another action in the past, but in a more formal or literary style. It is formed using the auxiliary verb "avoir" or "être" in the imparfait tense and the past participle of the main verb. The passé antérieur is often used in literature or historical writing.

Example: Après qu'il eut fini ses études, il partit en voyage. (After he had finished his studies, he went on a trip.)

In summary, the passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, and passé antérieur are other tenses in French that indicate the time at which events occur relative to other events. The passé composé is used for completed actions, the imparfait for ongoing or repeated actions, the plus-que-parfait for actions that took place before another action in the past, and the passé antérieur for a more formal or literary style of writing.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Reflexive pronouns
• How to use half, third and quarter in French
• Easy way of generating the present subjunctive
• Namesake
• Gender of compound nouns
• Pronominal verbs without a reflexive interpretation
• Plural forms of adjectives — The normal case
• Compound nouns
• Agreement of the past participle following “être” with the subject of a passive
• Use of the definite article with superlatives