{"id":23171,"date":"2016-04-11T20:55:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=23171"},"modified":"2017-10-25T12:30:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T10:30:26","slug":"le-passe-simple-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/le-passe-simple-in-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Pass\u00e9 Simple…in Action!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that you’ve learned about what the simple past tense<\/a> in French does and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs<\/a>, let’s take a look how it is used in classic works of literature.<\/p>\n

Here’s a passage from Guy de Maupassant’s famous short story “Les Bijoux”:<\/p>\n

Il chercha longtemps dans le tas de clinquant qu\u2019elle avait laiss\u00e9, car jusqu\u2019aux derniers jours de sa vie elle en avait achet\u00e9 obstin\u00e9ment, rapportant presque chaque soir un objet nouveau, et il se d\u00e9cida pour le grand collier qu\u2019elle semblait pr\u00e9f\u00e9rer, et qui pouvait bien valoir, pensait-il, six ou huit francs, car il \u00e9tait vraiment d\u2019un travail tr\u00e8s soign\u00e9 pour du faux. <\/em>
\nIl le mit en sa poche et s\u2019en alla vers son minist\u00e8re en suivant les boulevards, cherchant une boutique de bijoutier qui lui inspir\u00e2t confiance.Il en vit une enfin et entra, un peu honteux d\u2019\u00e9taler ainsi sa mis\u00e8re et de chercher \u00e0 vendre une chose de si peu de prix. <\/em>
\n– Monsieur, dit-il au marchand, je voudrais bien savoir ce que vous estimez ce morceau. <\/em>
\nL\u2019homme re\u00e7ut l\u2019objet, l\u2019examina, le retourna, le soupesa, prit une loupe, appela son commis, lui fit tout bas des remarques, reposa le collier sur son comptoir et le regarda de loin pour mieux juger de l\u2019effet. <\/em>
\nM.\u00a0Lantin, g\u00ean\u00e9 par toutes ces c\u00e9r\u00e9monies, ouvrait la bouche pour d\u00e9clarer\u00a0: “Oh\u00a0! je sais bien que cela n\u2019a aucune valeur,” – quand le bijoutier pronon\u00e7a\u00a0: <\/em>
\n– Monsieur, cela vaut de douze \u00e0 quinze mille francs\u00a0; mais je ne pourrais l\u2019acheter que si vous m\u2019en faisiez conna\u00eetre exactement la provenance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Take a look at this passage: Can you identify verbs conjugated in the past simple tense? Identify all simple past verbs and leave them in the comments below. When you’ve read the passage several times and feel you have a good idea of what it is about, scroll down to look at the English translation below.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translation:<\/p>\n

“He looked for a while in the pile of tinsel that she had left behind from when she had continued to obstinately buy new gems up until the last days of her life, every day bringing home a new object, and he decided to sell the heavy necklace that she seemed to prefer and which, he thought, would be worth about six or seven francs for it was of very fine workmanship, though only imitation.<\/p>\n

He put it in his pocket, and set out along the boulevards in search of\u00a0a reliable jeweler’s shop. Finally he found one, and went in, feeling a little ashamed tat exposing his misery and searching to sell something that was worth so little.<\/p>\n

“Monsieur,” said he to the merchant, “I would like to know what this is worth.”<\/p>\n

The man took the necklace, examined it, turned it over, weighed it in his hand, took a loop, called his clerk, and made some remarks in an undertone. Then he put the ornament on the counter, and looked at it from a distance to judge of the effect.<\/p>\n

Monsieur Lantin, annoyed at all these ceremonies, opened his mouth to say: “Oh! I know well enough that it’s not worth anything,” when the jeweler said: “Monsieur, it’s worth from twelve to fifteen thousand francs; but I couldn’t buy it unless you can tell me exactly where it came from.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Now that you’ve learned about what the simple past tense in French does and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs, let’s take a look how it is used in classic works of literature. Here’s a passage from Guy de Maupassant’s famous short story “Les Bijoux”: Il chercha longtemps dans le tas de clinquant qu\u2019elle…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":23173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23171","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28962,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171\/revisions\/28962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}