3 These are examples of ‘historic present’. This tense expresses past actions and is used instead of a
past tense to give greater immediacy and impact to the story. (See Chapter 1.)
4 Enrefers back to tout ce qui m’appartient à Sainte-Hélène. It is the appropriate pronoun because of
the verb construction: verb + de + noun (disposer de) (see Chapter 10.)
5 Ilstands for Bertrand, lestands for le testament, luistands for à Napoléon. A third-person indirect
object pronoun such as luicomes after a direct object pronoun such as le(see Chapter 10.)
6 Both puissiezand connusseare subjunctive. They follow the conjunctions afin queand sans que,
which demand the subjunctive.
Puissiez(lines 41, 56) is a present subjunctive and is used to refer to future events. Connusse(line 81)
is an imperfect subjunctive referring to past events. This is only used in literary language. (See
Chapters 26 and 27.)
7 Se résigner(line 22): infinitive.
se résoud(line 35): indicative present.
se sentant(line 33): present participle.
s’est dégradée(line 59): passé composé (with passive meaning).
s’exécute(line 68): indicative present. (See Chapter 20).
8 Explique-t-il: there is an inversion of the subject and the verb in sentences where a verb of saying or
thinking occurs after direct speech.
Aussi figurera-t-elle: subject and verb are inverted in careful speech and writing when certain
adverbs such as aussi are placed at the beginning of the sentence (see Chapter 30).
●Text 5: Une fois réchauffé Key to analysis
1 dans les Alpes; en Israël; dans l’océan Pacifique; au Tchad; en Asie du Nord-Est
2 Articles may be omitted from lists like this.
3 In careful written French, desbecomes dewhen the adjective precedes the noun. After a
superlative, where in English we would use ‘in’, deis used in French. Here de + le globe= du globe.
4 It occurs throughout the singular of the present tense and in the third-person plural, i.e. before a
silent ending/mute -e. It also occurs throughout the future and conditional tenses.
5 Va augmenterindicates that this will certainly happen in the near future, as opposed to
augmentera, which would indicate probability in the more distant future.
6 en furetant(line 1): by rummaging/ferreting around
en empruntant(lines 6–7): by taking
en crachant(lines 58–9): by spitting out
en brisant(line 112): by breaking up
7 The verb in line 10 is passive, so the past participle agrees in gender and in number with the subject
of the sentence. In line 14, the past participle refers ahead to nuages(line 15) and so must agree
with it.
8 dès que (line 22). In both cases, Oris introducing a new element, which is the next step in a logical
argument. It may be translated as ‘now’.
9 It is an adjective in line 37, so it agrees with the noun heureswhich it qualifies. However, in line 5 it
is an invariable adverb qualifying the number 20 000.
10 Before a number or a fraction, when it means ‘a quantity less than’, moins is followed by de, not
que.
Keys 257