how to avoid the plus-que-parfaitI want to translate the following into French:
When I had signed the letter, Maurice mailed it.
I would write this: "Quand j'avais signé la lettre, Maurice l'a envoyée."
What I want to do is avoid the pluperfect in the subordinate clause. l reached for the usual stand-by "Après avoir/être + past participe" but that will not work here, as there are two subjects (I have always used "Après avoir ..." in the context of there otherwise being one subject) and "Après avoir signé la lettre, Maurice l'a envoyée" means "After having signed the letter, Maurice mailed it" but it also means that Maurice both signed it and mailed it.
That is inescapable because "Après avoir/être ...", a hanging participle/dangling modifier, lacks a subject, which is provided in a sentence by the first noun in the main clause, thus there is no doubt as to who signed it - it's Maurice because of the operation of that principle. (At least, that's the case in English; if French is somehow different, please tell me.)
I then tried "Après que ..." but I still end up with the pluperfect because inescapably the signing of the letter is complete and precedes the posting of it by Maurice. Then I thought to use the passive, but that seems generally to be anathema to the French and it is really clumsy to try it here. Then I thought to change the exact English formulation of the sentence and use "J'ai signé la lettre et puis Maurice l'a envoyée" but I don't think that that helps (nor is it correct). The signing precedes and is complete before Maurice's action and I keep ending up with the obvious - passé composé for Maurice's action and plus-que-parfait for the action that preceded it (signing).
On reflection, I suspect that I can only resort to the passive to solve this problem:
Maurice a envoyé la lettre qui avait été signé par moi.
(It doesn't matter to me that the passive is anathema to the French; this is just part of a grammar exercise.)
Do you think that that is correct or am I missing something in my quest?
Any solution please, other than the passive, to re-write the original in a way that avoids using the pluperfect in the subordinate clause?
surly if i say: “elle est ma sœur” or “il est le fils de Martha” that is a correct sentences right??????????? i m sure/ think i ve heard that in french!!!! why shouldn’t it work????
this is very confusing
Then we cross the spring-green vine arches,
Puis nous traversons les arches de vigne d'un verts printanier,Puis nous traversons les arches de vigne d'un vert printanier,
Does the green not refer to the arches (Plural)?
I used the subjunctive for the following:
La vue .... était la plus belle que j'aie jamais vue...... (subjective attitude?)
I listened to that first sentence time and time again and I really cannot hear "Sarah", really sounds like "Ça va".
When would you use this expression (s`en aller) instead of the verb partir? Je m`en vais or Je pars.
On peut aussi dire "du pont Saint-Martin"? Quand est-ce qu'on utilise "depuis" (from)? Ce sont des synonymes?
I want to translate the following into French:
When I had signed the letter, Maurice mailed it.
I would write this: "Quand j'avais signé la lettre, Maurice l'a envoyée."
What I want to do is avoid the pluperfect in the subordinate clause. l reached for the usual stand-by "Après avoir/être + past participe" but that will not work here, as there are two subjects (I have always used "Après avoir ..." in the context of there otherwise being one subject) and "Après avoir signé la lettre, Maurice l'a envoyée" means "After having signed the letter, Maurice mailed it" but it also means that Maurice both signed it and mailed it.
That is inescapable because "Après avoir/être ...", a hanging participle/dangling modifier, lacks a subject, which is provided in a sentence by the first noun in the main clause, thus there is no doubt as to who signed it - it's Maurice because of the operation of that principle. (At least, that's the case in English; if French is somehow different, please tell me.)
I then tried "Après que ..." but I still end up with the pluperfect because inescapably the signing of the letter is complete and precedes the posting of it by Maurice. Then I thought to use the passive, but that seems generally to be anathema to the French and it is really clumsy to try it here. Then I thought to change the exact English formulation of the sentence and use "J'ai signé la lettre et puis Maurice l'a envoyée" but I don't think that that helps (nor is it correct). The signing precedes and is complete before Maurice's action and I keep ending up with the obvious - passé composé for Maurice's action and plus-que-parfait for the action that preceded it (signing).
On reflection, I suspect that I can only resort to the passive to solve this problem:
Maurice a envoyé la lettre qui avait été signé par moi.
(It doesn't matter to me that the passive is anathema to the French; this is just part of a grammar exercise.)
Do you think that that is correct or am I missing something in my quest?
Any solution please, other than the passive, to re-write the original in a way that avoids using the pluperfect in the subordinate clause?
How do you describe colors that are not the basic color wheel hues like red, blue, green, purple? For example, if I wanted to describe a pale peachy-pink? Rose is too broad. I am an artist and I want to be able to describe in French colors more specifically. Merci.
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