The subjonctif imparfait in french

06 oct. 2017 12:43 - language-swap

Niveau intermédiaire

Like the indicative and the conditional, the subjunctive is a mode. It has four different conjugations in order to respect a certain time-line.
The “subjonctif imparfait” is pretty much “dead” in French for it's only used in literature and not in the spoken-french anymore. However, it can be interesting to know it for a good culture.
It is used in literature to talk about uncertain things that are not over by the time the person speaks.
Example:
Je croyais qu'il aimât le chocolat.
When the present subjunctive is used in a relative proposition, the principal proposition is in the indicative mode in past tenses. The major part of the time, it is introduced by the relative pronoun “que”.
Its conjugation is pretty hard since it is based on the conjugation of the “passé simple” with different terminations.
Let's see some of them:

Verbes en -ER (ex : aimer) Verbes en -IR (ex : finir)
-asse (aimasse) -isse (finisse)
-asses (aimasses) -isses (finisses)
-ât (aimât) -ît (finît)
-assions (aimassions) -issions (finissions)
-assiez (aimassiez) -issiez (finissiez)
-assent (aimassent) -issent (finissent)

The verbs of the third group only have two different features of terminations:

Prendre Courir
Prisse Courusse
Prisses Courusses
Prît Courût
Prissions Courussions
Prissiez Courussiez
Prissent Courussent








Here are the auxiliaries:

Avoir Être
Eusse Fusse
Eusses Fusses
Eût Fût
Eussions Fussions
Eussiez Fussiez
Eussent Fussent