Practice Makes Perfect

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  practice makes perfect  Complete French All-in-One   

A sampling of past tenses and translation obstacles  

in French literature

The purpose of the following excerpts, some exemplifying the quintessential, breathtaking virtu-

osity of French writing, is to move you profoundly, perhaps even spark a desire to look for the 

works quoted, and let you embark on a pilgrimage throughout the infinitely rich world of French 

literature. What sets French writers apart is their extraordinary ability to attain a unique balance 

of intellectual depth and technical virtuosity. Furthermore, they are never intimidated by meta-

physical challenges.

A case in point is the mysterious being of time, which writers literally conjure up, particu-

larly in prose, knowing that the many modalities of time add contrapuntal richness, texture, and 

depth to any narrative. While the past, for example, may be as incomprehensible as time itself, 

language—and particularly the French language—provides some keys, grammatical tenses, 

which enable us to differentiate, rationally and at a visceral level, between the various ways a per-

son or an event can exist in the past.

Moving beyond any rational or grammatical rules, French writers, emulating the interplay 

of melody and harmony in music, use tenses to express perceptible and imperceptible nuances 

within a defined temporal framework. For example, there are times when the spirit of the narra-

tive requires the passé simple, to indicate a clearly perceived, singular past event, but the narra-

tive can inexplicably veer into the imparfait, without any obvious justification. In other words, 

although these two tenses describe two distinct modalities of the past, there are times when they 

intersect, leaving it to the writer’s intuition to decide when a simple fact belongs to the simple 

past, and when it is better described by the somewhat ambivalent imparfait.

It is not a coincidence that time figures so prominently in French literature and philosophy, 

for the French spirit has a privileged rapport with time. Unlike their counterparts in other West-

ern traditions, who have approached time as an intellectual problem, French writers have under-

stood that only lived experience can unlock the portal of time. Brilliant exponents of this 

conception of time include Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, and Vladimir Jankélévitch, who wrote 

that not only is time our essence, but we human beings are its incarnation. Therefore, by reading 

and experiencing these literary fragments, by incorporating them into your own lived experi-

ence, you will not only improve your knowledge of the language but also experience the tremen-

dous power of literature to illuminate crucial realms of life that in the cold light of everyday 

banality appear hopelessly distant and inaccessible. Thinking about the mystery of time may not 

reward you with scientific insights, but it will change your life.

Read aloud these excerpts over and over. Write them in a small notebook, and try and mem-

orize some of them to enjoy the delicious taste of tenses.