French Grammar in Context

The subjunctive (imperfect and pluperfect) 181

Main clause (indicative) Subordinate clause
Group 1

present QUE present subjunctive
future perfect subjunctive
perfect

Group 2

imperfect QUE imperfect subjunctive
past historic pluperfect subjunctive
conditional
pluperfect

So, in the text, because the verb redoutait (line 1) in the main clause is imperfect (group 2), the
two verbs in the subordinate clause, existât and échappât (lines 2–3), are both in the imperfect
subjunctive. Similarly, vinssent (line 7) is imperfect subjunctive, because the verb in the main
clause décida (line 7) is past historic (also group 2).

2 FORMATION

Take as the stemthe second-person singular of the past historic (see Chapter 5), remove the final
-s, then add the following endings:
je -sse
tu -sses
il/elle -ˆt
nous -ssions
vous -ssiez
ils/elles -ssent

You will notice that except for the third-person singular which ends in -ˆt, these are in fact the
same endings as the present subjunctive, with the addition of the ‘infix’ -ssin all cases, exceptthe
third-person singular, which has a circumflex accent over the vowel instead.
There are no exceptionsto the above pattern. Even avoir and être conform.
For the purposes of active use, as opposed to recognition in reading, you need to learn only
the third-person singular form of the imperfect subjunctive of verbs other than avoir and être.
See Discover more about the imperfect subjunctivebelow for avoir and être.
Particular care must be taken to distinguish between the third-person singular form of the
past historic, on which there is no circumflex accent, and the third-person singular form of the
imperfect subjunctive, which always has a circumflex accent.
e.g.

Past historic Imperfect subjunctive

il décida(line 7) il décidât
il se rappela il se rappelât(line 4)
il confondit il confondît(line 5)
il put il pût