French Grammar in Context

• Past participles: concernés(line 4), élaboré(line 5); présenté(line 6); paru(line 9); préoccupé
  (line 10)


• Superlative: la disposition la plus importante(line 16) (see Chapter 18)

Discover more about the present participle and the gerund

1 USAGE

Present participle

a With some participles used as adjectives to describe position or state, French uses a past

participle where an English speaker might expect a present participle, e.g. Il était assis= He

was sitting. Similarly: couché, étendu(lying), accroché, pendu, suspendu(hanging), agenouillé

(kneeling), appuyé(leaning).

b As a verb form, the present participle is used much less frequentlyin French than is the

English form in ‘-ing’. It should be noted in particular that French prepositions are followed by

the infinitive(see above), e.g. Sans savoir l’heure =Without knowing the time. The only

preposition in French which is followed by the present participle is en.

c As a verb, the present participle may function as an alternative to a subordinate clause

expressing cause, e.g. Ayant beaucoup de travail en ce moment, je n’ai pas le temps de sortir

means much the same as Comme j’ai beaucoup de travail.. ..

d The existence of a few set verbal expressions with invariable present participles should be

noted. They include: argent comptant= in cash; ce disant= in so saying; chemin faisant= on

the way; strictement parlant= strictly speaking.

e The use of the perfect participle (see 2bbelow) may be illustrated by the following: Ayant fini

ses examens, il partit en vacances= Having finished his exams, he went off on holiday. Here the

participle functions as an alternative to Après avoir finior Parce qu’il avait fini.

Gerund

a The gerund – en+ present participle – may only be used to refer to the subject of the sentence.

So, for example, Je l’ai vu en sortant de la bibliothèquecan only mean ‘I saw him as I was

leaving the library’. By contrast, the present participle may in theory refer to the subject or

object, so that e.g. Je l’ai vu, sortant de la bibliothèquemay mean EITHER ‘I saw him as I was

leaving the library’, OR ‘I saw him as he was leaving the library’. In practice, if it referred to the

subject, the word order would most probably be Sortant de la bibliothèque, je l’ai vu.

b As well as being the equivalent of the English ‘by + -ing’, the gerund may also render the idea

of ‘in, upon, while + -ing’.

e.g. En faisant la vaisselle, elle pensait à ce qu’elle allait faire le lendemain= While doing....

c Preceded by tout, the gerund is also used to express the fact that one event is taking place all

the while that another is proceeding, e.g. Tout en écoutant le conférencier, elle griffonnait

discrètement sur un bout de papier= All the while she was listening to the lecturer, she was

quietly doodling on a piece of paper. In other contexts, tout+ gerund may express the idea

146 French Grammar in Context