Ch 25 · Lesson 8French · Chapter 25 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Sequencing past tenses: the story clock
In a story the moves the clock on, the imparfait holds it still and the -- goes back: , , .
The short version
Every past story runs on one clock
, .
Why?Hide
A past narrative has a 'now' of its own. Events on that line are , the scenery around them is imparfait, and anything that had already happened before it is --. , : one event, one background, one earlier event. Decide where the clock is and the tenses follow.
A French story runs three past tenses at once, and each has one job. The moves the story on, the imparfait holds it still, and the -- steps back to something already over.
The three jobs on one screen
| Tense | Its job | Example |
|---|---|---|
| imparfait | holds the story still | . |
| moves the story on | . | |
| plus-- | goes back before the scene | . |
.- It was raining..- A car stopped..- She had forgotten her coat.
elle avait oublié son manteau (before the scene)
il pleuvait (the scene, still)
une voiture s’est arrêtée (event 1)
son frère a baissé la vitre (event 2)
Timeline from past to now, with now marked.
Each tense on its own is on its own page: passé composé or imparfait and the plus-que-parfait. This page puts them in one paragraph.
The story clock
Picture a clock running through your story. Every verb does one of three things to it.
| The story... | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| moves on | . | |
| stands still | imparfait | . |
| goes back | plus-- | . |
String ten imperfects together and the story has not moved at all. Three verbs are three ticks of the clock: , , . - She went out, took the bus and arrived.
A first story, annotated
Read the French line by line, and watch the clock column.
| Clock | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| still | . | It was eight and raining. |
| still | Marie . | Marie had been waiting. |
| back | . | She had forgotten her coat. |
| moves | , . | Suddenly a car stopped. |
| still | . | It was her brother. |
| moves | . | He wound down the window. |
| moves | . | She got into the car. |
The first three lines move nothing. French is happy to open on a scene and let it sit; a story that fires a from the first line reads like a police statement.
sits in the middle of the action and is still imparfait: who it was is a state, not an event.
Going further: Signal words, and quand and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
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