arslanorkhon

[ebon tundra]

Please be patient

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

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

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.

[novel gazelle]

You can. It's formed the same as the subjunctive pluperfect, which is also literary now. You'll almost never have to conjugate it, and by the time you're in a situation where you'd have to read it, you'd likely essentially understand it already anyways

And by almost never, I mean essentially never

[elder depot]

Glad to hear that. Appreciated. 👏

[elder depot]

I've just been advised by an AI to skip 'Subjonctif Imparfait' as well. Any objections?

[novel gazelle]

You can safely skip most literary tenses. You'll want to be able to understand and recognize passé simple, maybe a couple others if you're going to read a bunch of literature, but they are not in common everyday usage

Passé simple gets used in a few fixed expressions, typically with être, "ce fut plaisir"

But at this point you for sure don't need to be thinking about these things

[elder depot]

Thanks for your msg once again. These're the tenses to be skipped for good: 'Subjonctif Imparfait', 'Subjonctif Plus-Que-Parfait', 'Conditionnel Passé II', 'Passé Simple', 'Futur Antérieur'

[elfin silo]

just to be extra clear, "conditionnel passé 2" IS subjunctive pluperfect, it's just a name they gave to it in a certain situation. It's still the exact same tense. I've only really encountered it in stuff like newspapers though

[elfin silo]

futur antérieur is a totally normal tense and not a hard one to learn since it's just a basic compound tense, there's no new info to be learned and it will be important in plenty of situations

if you're going to be doing any literary reading (literally any fiction book for example), and honestly even if youre not, id highly recommend at least getting an idea of what the passé simple looks like. It's by far the most important of the literary tenses. You dont have to know how to conjugate every verb, but knowing the difference between "je vis" and "je vis" can be important, for example

but that should come after the essential tenses unless youre already reading books

[elder depot]

Skipping 'Futur Antérieur' would definitely be a mistake. Shouldn't have been included on my list. Thanks for pointing it out. 👋 I've also read your msg from top to bottom. I will act in accordance with your instructions.

[prisma plaza]

"Qui l'eût cru ?" is a common sentence that uses this tense. Beyond that, we practically don't use the tense at all.

Even so, the form I is also used there.

[hearty peak]

quelle est la différence dans ta dernière phrase? 😅

[prisma plaza]

I live (vivre in present) and I saw (voir in simple past).

[elder depot]

I'm not quite happy with 'Futur Antérieur'. AI likewise advises against it. The following tenses are to be skipped entirely, meaning I won't ever memorise their conjugations: 'Subjonctif Imparfait', 'Subjonctif Plus-Que-Parfait', 'Conditionnel Passé II', 'Passé Simple', 'Futur Antérieur'

Thanks a bunch for your msgs, by the way.

[novel gazelle]

the ai is wrong

you need futur antérieur

passé antérieur can be skipped, but not futur

[elder depot]

Have I got to learn its conjugation or just to be able to recognise it when seen?

[novel gazelle]

both

it is not literary and is in active use

[elder depot]

Then it'll be memorised, thanks.

[prisma plaza]

There's no literary tenses among future ones. Plus there's the picture above your message in the main channel showing that futur antérieur is used.

[elder depot]

Didn't know I could also let go of 'Passé Antérieur'. That'll come in handy. 👋

'Futur Antérieur' is to be kept though.

[elfin silo]

AI is VERY frequently wrong. It's good to question things when you have conflicting info, but I highly recommend taking the advice/information of real, advanced/native speakers above a chatbot that just tries to guess the answer

Futur antérieur is dead easy to learn (no new info) so even if it WERE useless, it would take you maybe 5-10 seconds to learn it

But it is neither a literary tense nor rare

[elder depot]

Well said. That's exactly why the final say is yours. Many thanks for the help once again. 'Futur Antérieur' will be learnt. You've got my word. 👋

[eternal merlin]

yeah, i feel like you need to just start learning, before you worry about what you'll skip

as albatros said, there's nothing really to learn or not learn with futur antérieur, since you'll already learn the future of avoir

it should be pretty obvious just based on frequency what the literary tenses are that you won't have to use

[daring ibex]

i never had to do anything in the subjunctive other than present subjunctive growing up, but skip passé simple if u don't want to read in french, but futur anterieur is important

these are the ones you should know