French Literary Tenses

There are five French past tenses that are not used in spoken French. They are called literary or historical tenses because they are reserved for written French, such as

• Literature
• Journalism
• Historical texts
• Narration

At one time, literary tenses were used in spoken French, but they have gradually disappeared. When they are used, they raise the speaker's register to an extremely refined (some might even say snobbish) level of French. They may also be used for humorous effect. For example, in the French movie Ridicule, the aristocracy use literary tenses in their word games, in order to make themselves sound more educated and refined.

Each of the literary tenses has a non-literary equivalent; however, there are subtle nuances that are lost when using the equivalents. Most of these nuances don't exist in English, so I explain the difference in my lessons.

Because literary tenses are not used in spoken French, you need to be able to recognize them, but you will most likely never need to conjugate them. Even in written French, most of the literary tenses are disappearing. The passé simple is still common enough, but the others are often replaced by their spoken equivalents or by other verbal constructions. Some say that the disappearance of literary tenses leaves gaping holes in the French language - what do you think?

Page 2: Lesson on literary tenses

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