Literary Tense - Temps littéraire - French Grammar + Pronunciation Glossary

Definition: One of five French tenses/moods that are reserved for literary, historical, and other formal writing.

Examples:

Je fus heureux que tu eusses vu Luc.
I was happy that you saw Luc.

Ce fut dommage qu'il ne fusse pas venu à Paris.
It's too bad that he didn't come to Paris.

Also known as: Temps historique, temps de la narration, historical tense, narrative tense

Misspellings: temps litteraire, litéraire, literaire

Related lessons: Literary tenses - Verb timeline

Related terms: mood - tense - register