{"id":8185,"date":"2011-07-20T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T16:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=8185"},"modified":"2017-10-19T14:32:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:32:09","slug":"french-grammar-dude-dont-be-subdued-by-the-french-subjonctif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-grammar-dude-dont-be-subdued-by-the-french-subjonctif\/","title":{"rendered":"Dude, Don&#8217;t be Subdued by The French Subjonctif!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Yes, nearly everyone agrees: \u00a0<strong><em>Le subjonctif<\/em><\/strong>, or the French subjunctive mood, is not exactly &#8220;<strong>easy<\/strong>&#8221; to handle<strong>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here&#8217;s something brief to clear up your mind about <em><strong>le subjonctif<\/strong><\/em>, to understand in general what\u00a0it is (and what it is not):<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The first thing to know is that <strong><em>le subjonctif <\/em><\/strong>is<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>un mode<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span> (a mood), <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>not<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>un temps <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span>(a tense!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>seven <em>modes<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u00a0for a verb in French:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>L&#8217;indicatif <\/strong><\/em>mood, which presents the action of the verb as <strong>really happening<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Le conditionnel <\/strong><\/em>mood, which depicts the action of the verb as <strong>possibly happening<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>L&#8217;imp\u00e9ratif\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>mood, shows the action of the verb as <strong>an order<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>L&#8217;infinitif <\/strong><\/em>mood, just as in English, says <strong>what the action is<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Le participe <\/em><\/strong>mood expresses the action of the verb<strong> the same way an adjective would<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Le g\u00e9rondif <\/em><\/strong>mood determines the <strong>adverbial form<\/strong> of the verb<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>Le subjonctif<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0mood, finally, which interests us today, describes the action as either\u00a0<strong>desired<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>considered<\/strong>, or\u00a0<strong>doubtful<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Mais encore<\/strong><\/em> (What else)<strong>?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Le subjonctif <\/em><\/strong>has four <strong><em>temps <\/em><\/strong>(tenses), which go pair by pair: The\u00a0<strong><em>pr\u00e9sent<\/em> <\/strong>and\u00a0<em><strong>pass\u00e9<\/strong><\/em>, and the\u00a0<strong><em>imparfait<\/em> <\/strong>and<em><strong> plus-que-parfait<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Le subjonctif pr\u00e9sent\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>expresses the future as well. <em><strong>Exemple<\/strong><\/em>: &#8220;<em><strong>Je veux que tu sois la meilleure de ta classe de Fran\u00e7ais !<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Le subjonctif pass\u00e9\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>expresses precedence relative to the current moment. <em><strong>Exemple<\/strong><\/em>: &#8220;<em><strong>\u00a0Je veux qu&#8217;il ait connu\u00a0par moi, avant de mourir, ce que n&#8217;ignore presque aucun des autres hommes<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Le subjonctif du plus-que-parfait\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>depicts <em><strong>l&#8217;ant\u00e9riorit\u00e9<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(the precedence) with respect to <em><strong>l&#8217;imparfait<\/strong><\/em>. <em><strong>Exemple<\/strong><\/em>: &#8220;<strong><em>Maintenant, je peux te dire que la vraie raison pour laquelle\u00a0<em>je voulais que tu eusses<\/em>\u00a0cet argent<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; (Charles Baudelaire, <em>Derni\u00e8res lettres in\u00e9dites \u00e0 sa m\u00e8re<\/em>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>Le subjonctif imparfait<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, therefore,\u00a0remplaces <em><strong>le subjonctif pr\u00e9sent<\/strong><\/em> in a text written in the past tense<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Le subjonctif <\/strong><\/em>can occur in a <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">principal<\/span><\/strong> or <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">independent<\/span><\/strong> proposition. In a <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>proposition subordonn\u00e9e<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0the French <em><strong>subjonctif<\/strong><\/em> shows up after impersonal verbs expressing\u00a0<strong>necessity<\/strong>, <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">desire, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">doubt, etc<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">.<br \/>\n<span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">In the coming up posts, we&#8217;ll be talking about more specific uses of the French <em><strong>subjonctif<\/strong><\/em><\/span>, such as in the sometimes tricky case of &#8220;<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>que<\/strong><\/em><\/span>&#8220;, and <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>la concordance des temps <\/em><\/strong><\/span>(tense matching), etc.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"290\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2011\/07\/subjonctif_present1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Yes, nearly everyone agrees: \u00a0Le subjonctif, or the French subjunctive mood, is not exactly &#8220;easy&#8221; to handle. Here&#8217;s something brief to clear up your mind about le subjonctif, to understand in general what\u00a0it is (and what it is not): The first thing to know is that le subjonctif is un mode (a mood), not un&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-grammar-dude-dont-be-subdued-by-the-french-subjonctif\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":23677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[55406,55397,55403,55402,55404,24405,55400,55399,55401,55398],"class_list":["post-8185","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-concordance-des-temps","tag-french-subjunctive-mood","tag-proposition-independente","tag-proposition-principale","tag-proposition-subordonnee","tag-subjonctif","tag-subjonctif-imparfait","tag-subjonctif-passe","tag-subjonctif-plus-que-parfait","tag-subjonctif-present"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8185"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28320,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions\/28320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}