Well, the meaning is different, soit venu is the genuine past subjunctive and fût venu is what we call the subjunctive plus-que-parfait in French and to use it we would say j'avais eu peur qu'il fût venu for a past event, however j'ai eu peur qu'il soit venu can be used for a present event. However in French we do not use the four subjunctive tenses anymore, the imparfait and the plus-que-parfait are very rare nowadays.
hi, thank you for your comment, fortunately we do not use the imperfect subjunctive, the past is just for event prior to the first part of your sentence!
@TheHaydock91 Hi, you are right, it is what we call the "ne" répletif however you do not need to use it, it is up to you, this "ne" was really used before without a clear explanation in French, some call it the ne répletif but not all, I will add a lesson about it soon but don"t worry it is just to have a literary style. Pascal
Thank you! I told my teacher "Yes, I read the chapter, but I don't understand it!" and then I watched these videos and now I understand. Thank you! I told all my class mates about these videos.
A m a z i n g !!!! You are a gifted professor. I am so glad that I found these fantastic lessons/videos. I am understanding more about this matter in one afternoon than I have in several weeks of, well, classes... I am most grateful.
There is an error at the 4.57 mark When you're translating "J'etais heureux qu'il soit parti" you say in english I was happy that he had come. Shouldn't it be I was happy that he had left?
thanks for the video... tell me this: do you only have 2 subjunctive forms in french, present and past? not 4 like in spanish and italian? (present, past, imperfect, past perfect)
Wow, that was fast. Im currently in Paris living and studying and I feel that if I were learning all of these grammar rules in English for the french language it might be a bit easier to make the connection I have two quick questions 1. the meaning of "Que ce" and if I'm changing the following to subjunctive, Si Pierre n'a pas reussi, en depit de ses dons, c'est uniquement faute d'application would it be Si Pierre n'a pas reussi, malgre qu'il ait les dons or malgre qu'ils aient dons
in this case, sometimes we use the present subjunctive or sometimes the future indicative: je ne crois pas qu'il viendra or je ne crois pas qu'il vienne
I don't understand. In "j'ai eu peur qu'il soit venu" I would have thought "qu'il soit venu" is gramatically a present subjunctive, albeit used to refer to a past action ("qu'il fût venu" being the genuine past subjunctive). In Portuguese we use all subjuntive tenses in our day-to-day language (including our characteristic future subjunctive, not known to other romance languages), but we don't consider compounds to be different tenses, only the verb declension counts. Isn't the same in French?
Hi Pascal. Is it possible to have 2 subjunctive forms in one sentence? For example, should one use 2 forms in the following sentence 'I want you to have found your kees before it gets dark'. I would translate this sentence thus: 'Je veux que tu aies trouvé tes clés avant qu'il fasse noir'.
You could (since they're different uses of the subjunctive), but that construction strikes me as a little stilted. I would simply say "Je veux que tu trouves tes clés avant qu'il fasse noir."
and do you have any lessons on when to use j'eu parle and j'ai eu parle because I really need to make sure I have the English translations down in my head
Merci beaucoup! C'est m'aidé beaucoup, avant que j'ai vu cette vidéo, j'étais très confus environ cette règle grammatique, maintenant j'ai une idée sur le sujet. Comme j'ai dis avant, merci beaucoup!
Reading all the questions about the imparfait du subjonctif and the plus-que-parfait du subjonctif in the comments section just underscores for me what I've long felt about them: that French really lost a lot of subtle nuances (and engendered a lot of confusion) when it relegated those two subjunctive tenses to the formal written language. Sure, having to learn all four may be a chore for some people, but the precision that comes with using all four tenses correctly and consistently is is worth the extra effort to me because it is something that gives the other Romance languages a distinct advantage when it comes to clearly expressing exact shades of meaning that French lacks -- ironically, it makes French so much harder to understand than it would if all four tenses (and the passé simple and the passé antérieur) were still in as common, everyday use in the spoken and informal written language as their Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian counterparts are!
Hello and thank you for another lesson, Pascal! Your course is very helpful. I've got a question to ask. Is the sentence "Je sois heureux qu'il vienne" grammatically correct or wrong? Thank you in advance for your response.
Learn French with Pascal Thank you very much, Pascal! Yes, I've mixed it up with the conditional mood! I seem to understand now that "Je sois heureux" doesn't make sense in French, without "que" put before it.
Learn French with Pascal Hello again, Pascal! I've been thinking over and over the subjunctive forms in French, it isn't indeed easy to find correct matches of structures in several different foreign languages, yet important, in order to understand their grammar profoundly. So, I still have a question. Can the following sentence exist in French, as an example of the subjunctive structure use: "Que je sois heureux, qu'il devienne heureux aussi." ("Let me be happy (May I be happy) so that he were (be) happy as well.") I appreciate your help!
so does past subjunctive replace imperfect and past perfect subjunctive?... i ask you all these questions cause i am italian and if french subjunctive is different from italian one, it is a little problem for me :P, but i will solve it.. thanks ;)
well, you can translate it but it is either too posh or too old French: it is imperfect subjunctive a tense we don't use anymore, you can use the present subjunctive instead: que tu parles, with the same meaning
Hi Pascal, I have a sentence that troubles me. I don´t know what verb tense is suitable here : nous n'aurions pas habit en banlieu même si on nous (offrir) un appartament. Your help will be much appreciated. Merci. By the way, what's the difference between offrir and s'offrir?
well, it is exactly the subject of this lesson, the first part nous n'aurions pas habité is Past Conditional, so you need a similar tense: même si nous avions eu un appartement (remember that the si conditional does not like the -rais ending, we don't say: si nous aurions but si nous avions. S'offrir is reflexive, it is something you offer to yourself
Merci beaucoup monsieur pour cette leçon. C'était trés útile néanmoins j'ai une question. Puis-je dire: j'ai voulu qu'il soit arrivé à l'huere à la gare?
I would need a sentence with "que ce", and for the second sentence you don't need subjunctive because malgré qu'il ait or qu'il a are a bit heavy to say in French, better to say malgré ses dons
Yeah La Sorbonne is all kinds of weird. This is what confuses me about the above sentence you just responded to because I would have put ait evince since I don't know evince to be an etre verb. Is soit evince subjonctive passe and if so, why is it etre and not avoir
WHAT is this? There's a past subjunctive?! God, I have never used that. What the... I'm so mad now. Just when I think I got some stuff figured out... out comes something new. I just kept using the past conditonal for this. I'm gonan have to watch this a few times.
donc on ne dit pas je ne pense pas qu'il est venu quand on veut dire "i dont think he came" en anglais?? mais on doit dire je ne pense pas qu'il soit venu parce ce que après que on doit utiliser le subjontif?? c'est correcte ou non? Mille merci
Que ce candidat aux elections(etre) evince par son rival ou qu'il (conclure) un accord avec lui, son prestige en souffrira. And although french people may not say j'eu parle, they certainly put that tense on french placement exams so it would be nice to know how it's used.
if this candidat, que ce candidat soit évincé... ou qu'il conclue un accord... j'eus parlé is passé antérieur but really as I said, it would be weird to have an exam with a tense nobody uses
Vos leçons sont les meilleures, vous êtes le plus précis.
Well, the meaning is different, soit venu is the genuine past subjunctive and fût venu is what we call the subjunctive plus-que-parfait in French and to use it we would say j'avais eu peur qu'il fût venu for a past event, however j'ai eu peur qu'il soit venu can be used for a present event. However in French we do not use the four subjunctive tenses anymore, the imparfait and the plus-que-parfait are very rare nowadays.
hi, thank you for your comment, fortunately we do not use the imperfect subjunctive, the past is just for event prior to the first part of your sentence!
I am living in Paris and taking french here, but every day after class I come home and watch your videos on the topic we studied. Thanks!
@TheHaydock91 Hi, you are right, it is what we call the "ne" répletif however you do not need to use it, it is up to you, this "ne" was really used before without a clear explanation in French, some call it the ne répletif but not all, I will add a lesson about it soon but don"t worry it is just to have a literary style. Pascal
Merci beaucoup Pascal. Très clair. Bonne journée.
Kerry Losi merci, vous aussi.
Thank you! I told my teacher "Yes, I read the chapter, but I don't understand it!" and then I watched these videos and now I understand. Thank you! I told all my class mates about these videos.
A m a z i n g !!!! You are a gifted professor. I am so glad that I found these fantastic lessons/videos. I am understanding more about this matter in one afternoon than I have in several weeks of, well, classes... I am most grateful.
Merci beaucoup. Votre vidéo est très claire et facile à comprendre.
John Coughlan merci
you are welcome, the next one is about "il y a", to translate there is there are, ago and distance. Along with useful expressions!
Pascal
Merci beaucoup Monsieur, ..vous avez le fait tres simple pour comprendre.
anjali tyagi merci
There is an error at the 4.57 mark When you're translating "J'etais heureux qu'il soit parti" you say in english I was happy that he had come. Shouldn't it be I was happy that he had left?
thanks for the video... tell me this: do you only have 2 subjunctive forms in french, present and past? not 4 like in spanish and italian? (present, past, imperfect, past perfect)
merci beaucoup pour cette superbe explication du subjonctif passé! Parfait!
Gabriela Klingvall merci, c’est gentil.
we use the subjunctive present instead of imperfect. You are right it is different from Italian and Spanish.
Wow, that was fast. Im currently in Paris living and studying and I feel that if I were learning all of these grammar rules in English for the french language it might be a bit easier to make the connection
I have two quick questions 1. the meaning of "Que ce"
and if I'm changing the following to subjunctive,
Si Pierre n'a pas reussi, en depit de ses dons, c'est uniquement faute d'application would it be Si Pierre n'a pas reussi, malgre qu'il ait les dons or malgre qu'ils aient dons
We had, but you will find them in very old French books as we do not use the subjunctive imperfect anymore.
in this case, sometimes we use the present subjunctive or sometimes the future indicative: je ne crois pas qu'il viendra or je ne crois pas qu'il vienne
I don't understand. In "j'ai eu peur qu'il soit venu" I would have thought "qu'il soit venu" is gramatically a present subjunctive, albeit used to refer to a past action ("qu'il fût venu" being the genuine past subjunctive).
In Portuguese we use all subjuntive tenses in our day-to-day language (including our characteristic future subjunctive, not known to other romance languages), but we don't consider compounds to be different tenses, only the verb declension counts. Isn't the same in French?
C'est clair ! merci beaucoup
i guess it's pretty randomly asking but do anyone know of a good site to watch new movies online ?
@Aries Clark I would suggest FlixZone. You can find it by googling :)
@Syuni2Kiss if you are speaking about something in the past, that's right.
When do you use the subjonctif with the verb 'penser'?
Hi Pascal. Is it possible to have 2 subjunctive forms in one sentence? For example, should one use 2 forms in the following sentence 'I want you to have found your kees before it gets dark'. I would translate this sentence thus: 'Je veux que tu aies trouvé tes clés avant qu'il fasse noir'.
You could (since they're different uses of the subjunctive), but that construction strikes me as a little stilted. I would simply say "Je veux que tu trouves tes clés avant qu'il fasse noir."
Thank you!!!!!
and do you have any lessons on when to use j'eu parle and j'ai eu parle because I really need to make sure I have the English translations down in my head
Merci beaucoup! C'est m'aidé beaucoup, avant que j'ai vu cette vidéo, j'étais très confus environ cette règle grammatique, maintenant j'ai une idée sur le sujet. Comme j'ai dis avant, merci beaucoup!
Juan The Neko merci
Reading all the questions about the imparfait du subjonctif and the plus-que-parfait du subjonctif in the comments section just underscores for me what I've long felt about them: that French really lost a lot of subtle nuances (and engendered a lot of confusion) when it relegated those two subjunctive tenses to the formal written language. Sure, having to learn all four may be a chore for some people, but the precision that comes with using all four tenses correctly and consistently is is worth the extra effort to me because it is something that gives the other Romance languages a distinct advantage when it comes to clearly expressing exact shades of meaning that French lacks -- ironically, it makes French so much harder to understand than it would if all four tenses (and the passé simple and the passé antérieur) were still in as common, everyday use in the spoken and informal written language as their Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian counterparts are!
thank you, you are right ;)
Hello and thank you for another lesson, Pascal! Your course is very helpful. I've got a question to ask. Is the sentence "Je sois heureux qu'il vienne" grammatically correct or wrong? Thank you in advance for your response.
je serais heureux qu'il vienne (would is conditional)
Learn French with Pascal
Thank you very much, Pascal! Yes, I've mixed it up with the conditional mood! I seem to understand now that "Je sois heureux" doesn't make sense in French, without "que" put before it.
Natali Dali well you need something before: il faut que je sois. Que je sois heureux, elle s'en moque...
Learn French with Pascal
Thank you a lot again, Pascal! It is really great to study French with you!
Learn French with Pascal
Hello again, Pascal! I've been thinking over and over the subjunctive forms in French, it isn't indeed easy to find correct matches of structures in several different foreign languages, yet important, in order to understand their grammar profoundly. So, I still have a question. Can the following sentence exist in French, as an example of the subjunctive structure use: "Que je sois heureux, qu'il devienne heureux aussi." ("Let me be happy (May I be happy) so that he were (be) happy as well.") I appreciate your help!
so does past subjunctive replace imperfect and past perfect subjunctive?... i ask you all these questions cause i am italian and if french subjunctive is different from italian one, it is a little problem for me :P, but i will solve it.. thanks ;)
What is past participle of "etre" for forming plu perfect tense with etre taking verbs?
Beagle's 0 A.D. & other games étant
Hi teacher!! and how would you translate 'tu parlasses' into Engish? I love your videos.
well, you can translate it but it is either too posh or too old French: it is imperfect subjunctive a tense we don't use anymore, you can use the present subjunctive instead: que tu parles, with the same meaning
Hi Pascal, I have a sentence that troubles me. I don´t know what verb tense is suitable here : nous n'aurions pas habit en banlieu même si on nous (offrir) un appartament. Your help will be much appreciated. Merci. By the way, what's the difference between offrir and s'offrir?
well, it is exactly the subject of this lesson, the first part nous n'aurions pas habité is Past Conditional, so you need a similar tense: même si nous avions eu un appartement (remember that the si conditional does not like the -rais ending, we don't say: si nous aurions but si nous avions. S'offrir is reflexive, it is something you offer to yourself
You would use the imperfect indicative: "même si on nous offrait un appartement."
so if a sentence is in the present, then just rewrite it in the past subjunctive & vice versa? Id that really all there is to it?
Merci beaucoup monsieur pour cette leçon. C'était trés útile néanmoins j'ai une question. Puis-je dire: j'ai voulu qu'il soit arrivé à l'huere à la gare?
I would need a sentence with "que ce", and for the second sentence you don't need subjunctive because malgré qu'il ait or qu'il a are a bit heavy to say in French, better to say malgré ses dons
How does one say: I was afraid that he was coming. What tense of the subjunctive would be used here?
Joe Cipriano the present as the subjunctive imparfait is mot used any more
we don't use any more this tense: j'eu parlé etc...
Yeah La Sorbonne is all kinds of weird.
This is what confuses me about the above sentence you just responded to because I would have put ait evince since I don't know evince to be an etre verb. Is soit evince subjonctive passe and if so, why is it etre and not avoir
WHAT is this? There's a past subjunctive?! God, I have never used that. What the...
I'm so mad now. Just when I think I got some stuff figured out... out comes something new.
I just kept using the past conditonal for this.
I'm gonan have to watch this a few times.
@pretty0786 thank u!!!
donc on ne dit pas je ne pense pas qu'il est venu quand on veut dire "i dont think he came" en anglais?? mais on doit dire je ne pense pas qu'il soit venu parce ce que après que on doit utiliser le subjontif?? c'est correcte ou non? Mille merci
Justina Choi correct :)
Que ce candidat aux elections(etre) evince par son rival ou qu'il (conclure) un accord avec lui, son prestige en souffrira.
And although french people may not say j'eu parle, they certainly put that tense on french placement exams so it would be nice to know how it's used.
if this candidat, que ce candidat soit évincé... ou qu'il conclue un accord...
j'eus parlé is passé antérieur but really as I said, it would be weird to have an exam with a tense nobody uses
or should I say, why isn't it ait ete evince or does such a thing exist in the subjunctive
super
Imparfait du subjonctif but nobody uses it, it is old French.
We use it more often than Past Conditional Second Form ^^
same rule, penser is not specific.
enter me!! :) :) i really want the sigma brushes!!
J’ai peur qu’il vienne = I’m afraid that he comes...not “is coming” you need the simple present in English
Wow 😮 this one is hard. Yikes!
Acteaon hé hé