172 French Grammar in Context
3 FORMATION
a For the je, tu, il/elleand ils/ellesforms, take the third person plural form of the present
indicative minus the -entas the stem, and add the following endings:
je -e
tu -es
il -e
ils -ent
The nousand vousforms of the present subjunctive are identical to the imperfect indicative
(see Chapter 3).
There are multiple examples of the present subjunctive in the text.
b A few verbs have an irregular stem throughout the present subjunctive. The endings, however,
are the same for all French verbs except avoirand être.- faire: fasse, fasses, fasse(line 9), fassions, fassiez, fassent
- falloir: faille(line 31)
- pouvoir: puisse, puisses, puisse, puissions, puissiez, puissent(line 6)
- savoir: sache, saches, sache(line 37),sachions, sachiez, sachent
- avoir: aie, aies, ait(line 13), ayons, ayez(line 34), aient
- être: sois, sois, soit(line 31), soyons, soyez, soient
c The verb vouloirhas an irregular stem in the je, tu, iland ilsforms, but not in the nousand
vousforms. Thus: veuille, veuilles, veuille(line 28),VOULIONS, VOULIEZ, veuillent.
4 USE OF THE PRESENT TENSE
a The tenses of the subjunctive most commonly used in speech and writing are the present and
the perfect. There is no such thing as a future subjunctive, so that the present subjunctive
covers instances where if the verb were indicative a future might be expected, e.g. j’ai peur...
que mon indiscrétion ne lui paraisse étrange(line 8) = I am afraid that my indiscretion will/may
appear strange to him. Similarly, de peur que le gamin ne finisse. .. (lines 26–7) = for fear that
the kid will/may end up .... Note that you should not translate the English ‘may’ in these
circumstances with a tense of pouvoir(see Chapter 24).
b The perfect subjunctive (see below) is used in instances where reference is made to prior
events and where a present subjunctive would not convey this reference to the past, e.g. je
crains même qu’il ne soit déjà parti(line 31) = I am afraid that he may already have left. The
present subjunctive qu’il ne partewould mean ‘I fear that he may leave’.Other points to note in the text- Perfect subjunctive: il ne soit déjà parti(line 31) (see below for more information).
- Articles: de multiples raisons(line 5) (see Chapter 13).
- Negative: il n’a plus rien dit(line 30) (see Chapter 8).