French grammar · Advanced
The Four Literary Tenses of French
French keeps four tenses for writing only: le passé simple, le passé antérieur, l'imparfait du subjonctif and le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif. Each has an exact spoken equivalent, none is used in conversation, and all four have to be read fluently by anyone opening a French novel.
Dès qu'il eut fini, il se leva et sortit.
As soon as he had finished, he got up and left.
What it is
Written French narrative runs on a different set of tenses from spoken French. Two of them are indicative and two subjunctive, which is why they are usually described as tenses and moods together. The important point for a learner is that they are a reading skill: each one maps onto a tense you already use, and the mapping is exact.
Il fut surpris qu'elle ne dît rien. — He was surprised that she said nothing.
How to spot it
Endings you never hear in speech: -a, -it, -ut, -èrent for the passé simple; eut or fut plus a participle; a doubled s or a circumflex for a subjunctive.
- Elle ouvrit la porte et entra. — She opened the door and went in.
- Quand il eut payé, il s'en alla. — When he had paid, he went away.
- On exigeait qu'il se tût. — He was required to keep quiet.
- Bien qu'elle eût promis, elle ne vint pas. — Although she had promised, she didn't come.
Circumflexes cluster in these tenses: nous allâmes, qu'il partît, qu'il eût fini. Where modern French rarely accents a verb ending, literary French does so constantly.
Literary Tenses and Moods Quick Reference
The literary tenses and what replaces them in speech
| Literary tense | Example | Spoken equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Le passé simple | il alla | il est allé |
| Le passé antérieur | il eut fini | il avait fini |
| L'imparfait du subjonctif | qu'il allât | qu'il aille |
| Le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif | qu'il eût fini | qu'il ait fini |
| Le conditionnel passé 2e forme | il eût aimé | il aurait aimé |
Common Literary Tenses and Moods Examples in French
Each of the four, as it appears on the page:
Le Passé Simple: the Narrative Past
- Il naquit à Rouen en 1821.
- He was born in Rouen in 1821.
- Ils se marièrent et eurent trois enfants.
- They married and had three children.
- Elle prit son manteau et sortit.
- She took her coat and went out.
- La guerre éclata au printemps.
- War broke out in the spring.
The workhorse of the four: every novel, every history book, every fairy tale. Speech replaces it with the passé composé throughout.
Le Passé Antérieur: One Step Further Back
- Dès qu'elle eut compris, elle se tut.
- As soon as she understood, she fell silent.
- Quand il eut terminé, on applaudit.
- When he had finished, there was applause.
- Après qu'ils furent partis, la maison parut vide.
- After they had left, the house felt empty.
- À peine fut-il sorti que la pluie commença.
- He had scarcely gone out when the rain began.
The passé simple of avoir or être plus a participle. It appears almost exclusively after dès que, quand, après que and à peine.
L'Imparfait du Subjonctif
- Il fallait qu'elle répondît.
- She had to reply.
- On craignait qu'il ne fût trop tard.
- It was feared it might be too late.
- Elle attendait qu'il parlât.
- She was waiting for him to speak.
Built on the passé simple stem. Modern French leaves the subjunctive in the present whatever the tense of the governing verb.
Le Plus-que-parfait du Subjonctif
- Bien qu'il eût tout prévu, rien ne marcha.
- Although he had foreseen everything, nothing worked.
- Elle regrettait qu'il fût parti si vite.
- She was sorry he had left so quickly.
- Il eût fallu qu'on nous prévînt.
- We ought to have been told.
The imperfect subjunctive of the auxiliary plus a participle. This is the commoner of the two subjunctives in print, because eût and fût are short and instantly recognisable.
How the System Fits Together
Five observations that make the four tenses easier to handle as a set.
Two Are Indicative, Two Are Subjunctive
The passé simple and the passé antérieur state facts. The imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive appear only in subordinate clauses, after the same triggers as any other subjunctive.
Il vint, bien qu'on lui eût interdit de venir.
He came, although he had been forbidden to.
Two moods, four tenses.
Each Pairs with a Spoken Tense
Nothing in this set expresses anything the spoken language cannot. Translating out of it is mechanical: passé simple to passé composé, passé antérieur to pluperfect, and so on.
Elle partit sans rien dire.
She left without saying anything.
partit gives est partie.
The Passé Antérieur Needs a Conjunction
It almost never stands alone. Its job is to mark the earlier of two literary past actions, so it sits in the subordinate clause with the passé simple in the main one.
Dès qu'il eut signé, tout changea.
As soon as he had signed, everything changed.
dès que, quand, après que, à peine.
The Circumflex Does the Distinguishing
Fut and fût, eut and eût, differ by one accent and not at all in sound. In these tenses the accent is the only thing separating an indicative from a subjunctive.
Il fut heureux qu'elle fût venue.
He was glad she had come.
fut states; fût depends.
Mixing Registers Is the Real Error
A passé simple next to a passé composé jars in a way no rule quite captures. Whichever register a passage is in, it should stay there from beginning to end.
Il arriva, salua tout le monde et s'assit.
He arrived, greeted everybody and sat down.
One register per passage.
Common Mistakes with Literary Tenses and Moods
Incorrect: Hier, je fus au cinéma avec des amis. — Yesterday I went to the cinema with friends.
Correct: Hier, je suis allé au cinéma avec des amis. — Yesterday I went to the cinema with friends.
A passé simple in a sentence about your own weekend is a register error rather than a grammatical one, and être is not the verb for going somewhere either.
Incorrect: Quand il a eu fini, il partit. — When he had finished, he left.
Correct: Quand il eut fini, il partit. — When he had finished, he left.
The passé antérieur uses the passé simple of the auxiliary, eut, not the passé composé a eu. The hybrid leaves one sentence sitting in two registers.
Incorrect: Il fut surpris qu'elle fut venue. — He was surprised she had come.
Correct: Il fut surpris qu'elle fût venue. — He was surprised she had come.
The first fut is indicative and the second has to be subjunctive, which means a circumflex. The two are one accent apart and pronounced identically.
Incorrect: Bien qu'il eut compris, il ne dit rien. — Although he had understood, he said nothing.
Correct: Bien qu'il eût compris, il ne dit rien. — Although he had understood, he said nothing.
Bien que requires a subjunctive, so the auxiliary is eût. Without the accent the form is the passé simple of avoir, which cannot follow bien que.
The Four Tenses Conjugated
The two indicative tenses, then the two subjunctives, then être and avoir, which build half of the others.
Le passé simple and le passé antérieur
The passé antérieur is the passé simple of the auxiliary plus a participle, so the second column is the first one applied to avoir.
| Pronoun | passé simple (aller) | passé antérieur (finir) |
|---|---|---|
| je / j' | j'allai | j'eus fini |
| tu | tu allas | tu eus fini |
| il / elle / on | il alla | il eut fini |
| nous | nous allâmes | nous eûmes fini |
| vous | vous allâtes | vous eûtes fini |
| ils / elles | ils allèrent | ils eurent fini |
The nous and vous forms of the passé simple carry a circumflex, and they are also the two forms a modern reader stumbles over most.
The two literary subjunctives
Same relationship: the pluperfect subjunctive is the imperfect subjunctive of the auxiliary with a participle behind it.
| Pronoun | imparfait (partir) | plus-que-parfait (finir) |
|---|---|---|
| que je / j' | que je partisse | que j'eusse fini |
| que tu | que tu partisses | que tu eusses fini |
| qu'il / elle / on | qu'il partît | qu'il eût fini |
| que nous | que nous partissions | que nous eussions fini |
| que vous | que vous partissiez | que vous eussiez fini |
| qu'ils / elles | qu'ils partissent | qu'ils eussent fini |
The right-hand column is far commoner in print than the left, because writers reach for a compound tense more readily than for partissions.
Être and avoir in the passé simple
Worth learning before anything else in this set, since they also build the passé antérieur and appear on nearly every page of a novel.
| Pronoun | être | avoir |
|---|---|---|
| je / j' | je fus | j'eus |
| tu | tu fus | tu eus |
| il / elle / on | il fut | il eut |
| nous | nous fûmes | nous eûmes |
| vous | vous fûtes | vous eûtes |
| ils / elles | ils furent | ils eurent |
Il eut and il fut are the indicative forms. Add a circumflex and you have the subjunctives, qu'il eût and qu'il fût.
The Second-Form Conditional, and Other Survivals
Where the literary system leaks into writing that is otherwise entirely modern.
Le conditionnel passé deuxième forme
The pluperfect subjunctive can stand in a main clause with the meaning of a conditional perfect. It is a mark of high style and still turns up in editorials and criticism.
- Il eût mieux valu se taire.
- It would have been better to keep quiet.
- Elle eût aimé le revoir.
- She would have liked to see him again.
- On eût dit un tableau.
- You would have thought it was a painting.
On eût dit is the form of this that survives as a set phrase, sitting alongside its ordinary twin on aurait dit.
Literary conditional sentences
In older prose, both halves of an unreal condition could go into the pluperfect subjunctive, where modern French uses the pluperfect indicative and the conditional perfect.
- Si j'eusse su, je n'eusse rien dit.
- Had I known, I'd have said nothing.
- N'eût-il été si fier, il aurait demandé de l'aide.
- Had he not been so proud, he'd have asked for help.
The modern versions are si j'avais su, je n'aurais rien dit, and s'il n'avait pas été si fier.
Fragments that survive in everyday French
A few forms have broken off from the literary system and are used by people who would never write a passé antérieur.
- Ne fût-ce que par politesse, réponds-lui.
- Answer her, if only out of politeness.
- Il fut un temps où tout était plus simple.
- There was a time when everything was simpler.
- Ainsi soit-il.
- So be it.
These are memorised wholes. Nobody producing them is choosing a tense, which is why they survive while the system around them has not.
Literary Tenses and Moods FAQs
- What are the literary tenses in French?
- Four: le passé simple, le passé antérieur, l'imparfait du subjonctif and le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif. Two are indicative and two subjunctive, and each corresponds to a tense used in speech — respectively the passé composé, the pluperfect, and the present and past subjunctive.
- Why does French have separate written tenses?
- They were once ordinary spoken forms and were gradually displaced by compound tenses, surviving in writing because narrative prose is conservative. The result is a literary register that reads as neutral in a novel and absurd in conversation.
- Do I need to learn to use the literary tenses?
- You need to recognise them, not produce them. Reading a French novel without the passé simple is impossible; writing one is not something a learner is asked to do. Concentrate on the third person forms, which account for most occurrences.
- What is the passé antérieur?
- The literary equivalent of the pluperfect: the passé simple of avoir or être plus a past participle, as in dès qu'il eut fini or après qu'elle fut partie. It marks the earlier of two past actions and appears almost only after a time conjunction.
- What is the conditionnel passé deuxième forme?
- The pluperfect subjunctive used in a main clause with the sense of a conditional perfect: il eût mieux valu partir means it would have been better to leave. It is high literary style, and on eût dit is the one instance still in general use.