#flashlight2537

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

keen tangleBOT
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Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

white basin
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This is the passé simple and it's used only in literature.

elfin lichen
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It's -âtes and -èrent.
And yes, it's aimai, aimas, aima, aimâmes, aimâtes, aimèrent.

white basin
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By the way, « aimer » is conjugated like that:
« J'aimai, tu aimas, il aima, nous aimâtes, vous aimâtes, ils aimèrent »

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You should not be learning the passé simple unless you are writing a book

pliant haven
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Okay thanks, wow this talking vs writing has got me all mixed up 😅

pliant haven
elfin lichen
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Passé simple is long phased out in spoken French in favor of passé composé. It is now pretty much used in literature and storytelling.

pliant haven
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One more question, does this include lyrics to songs?

white basin
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in contrast to « composé » wherein it has two elements

pliant haven
white basin
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Okay, how long do you have?

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Cuz I got a lengthy explanation

pliant haven
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I will read it. Thank you for helping me.

white basin
# pliant haven I will read it. Thank you for helping me.

We can say that a verb, when conjugated, has two bits of information: It has the personal information, stuff like person, number, tense, and all that; and the meaning information, what the verb actually means. For example, if I said « je mange », that one verb contains both bits of information.
The personal information is first-person (speaker, I/we), singular (one, I), present tense (now), indicative mood (factual); the meaning information is the act of eating. If I continue the conjugation, it'll change the personal information but the meaning information is still embedded within. « Tu manges » changes it to second-person (listener, you/you all), singular (one, you), present tense (now), indicative mood (factual); meaning is to eat, to consume something. What it means when a tense is simple is that one form contains both the personal and meaning information.

In contrast, a compound tense is when this personal and meaning information have separated and thus you need more than one element to fully describe the verb. For example, say I conjugate « manger » in the passé composé. What we'll have is two elements: the auxiliary verb (avoir) and the past participle (mangé). The auxiliary verb carries the personal information while the past participle carries the meaning information. If I just said « j'ai » or « je mangé », you have no idea what it is that I'm saying because you're getting the personal OR the meaning information, and not both. This is why passé composé and other compound tenses require an auxiliary and a past participle; you need both.

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That's why, when I conjugate the rest of the verb, the past participle doesn't change. It just serves to give you the meaning information. « J'ai mangé, tu as mangé, il a mangé, nous avons mangé, vous avez mangé, ils ont mangé. »
It's more complicated than that but the bottom line is that 'simple' means that you only need one verb form to carry both the personal and meaning info but 'compound' means that you need two forms to carry them: an auxiliary and a past participle.

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The past participle is just there for the ride, it doesn't really serve any other purpose. The onus of the verb, its driving force, falls to the auxiliary verb which will help you in more complex situations such as object pronoun and adverb placement.

pliant haven
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Tu as raison. Je suis un ptit confus mais je trouve que je le comprends un peu mieux

white basin
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Try to digest that yeah

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The point is that simple tenses only have one form but compound tenses have two forms

pliant haven
white basin
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The good news for you is that half of all French tenses are compound tenses