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Luke wrote:A simple past tense? What did you people do to turn a simple past tense into something "snobbish"? I am still disappointed at the disappearance of the future subjuntive in Spanish...
JackFrost wrote:the double present perfect.
JackFrost wrote:double present perfect.
johntm wrote:JackFrost wrote:double present perfect.
Whoa, explain please. Google gave nothing.
Yes. I've heard of Sorbian many times and even looked it up. One of the varieties uses the grapheme ř, but it's pronounced differently than in Czechjohnklepac wrote:johntm wrote:JackFrost wrote:double present perfect.
Whoa, explain please. Google gave nothing.
If I understand correctly, it means making a continuous action even more continuous, like changing "I am going to the store" to "I am in the process of being in the process of going the store." Eh, that wasn't great. Hard to explain, I guess. But I never got that far in French, so maybe it means something different there.
Lol, past imperative. "You'd better have done this!"
Oh, and you know you're a language nerd when you've heard of Sorbian and don't live in Germany (or maybe Poland or the Czech Republic).
JackFrost wrote:Why bother include it in the grammar book if no one uses it? It's like English grammar books don't include the archaic conjugations for I, thou, he/she/it, and we/ye/they. Or the French's past imperative and the double present perfect.
Marah wrote:I don't care much to read old literature, so the simple past probably isn't INCREDIBLY important (I'm decent at recognizing it), but since it's nothing incredibly hard I'd feel like I cheated not learning it
Hum, saying you'll only come across the simple past if you read old literature is not really accurate. It's very well alive in modern literature and in newspapers. If you want to sound educated it's perfectly normal to use it, even orally. Learning the "il, elle / ils, elles" conjugation is useful whenever you have to write an essay or whenever you have to give a talk.
JackFrost wrote:I translated it from French: "passé surcomposé". It uses two past participles with the auxiliary avoir ("to have"), hence the "double" description that used in some other languages like Swedish and German.
Dormouse559 wrote:When you get really excited upon hearing "haitch" in person for the first time.
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