Summary Chapter 17

Future Anterior and Past Conditional 

When the future of être or avoir is used as an auxiliary followed by the past participle, the tense formed is the future anterior (also called the future perfect).

When the conditional of être or avoir is used as an auxiliary followed by the past participle, the tense formed is the past conditional (also called the conditional perfect).

These two compound tenses can generally be translated word for word into English.

Nous aurons contacté son bureau avant votre visite.

Sans ces obstacles insurmontables, j'aurais participé à votre colloque avec plaisir.

The future anterior is used to describe actions that will be completed before a stated moment in the future. (Their completion is anterior to that moment.)

J'aurai préparé tout le dîner avant 7h (avant l'arrivée de nos invités).

The past conditional generally describes a contrary to fact action or state, usually linked to some hypothetical condition that did not occur (expressed in a "si" clause in the pluperfect):

S'il m'avait prévenu, je l'aurais accompagné.

[The book also describes (pp. 338-9) less common hypothetical uses for these tenses. In the case of the conditional, these uses are essentially extensions of the "journalistic conditional."]

Past Subjunctive

This tense was already presented, with little fanfare, in Chapter 12 (§79.2, p. 222). In very correct written French, the past subjunctive occurs only in clauses introduced by a main clause in the present tense:

Je suis désolé qu'il soit parti si tôt.

As we saw in Chapter 12, the past subjunctive is usually translatable by a simple past (or a present perfect): 

I'm sorry that he left so early.  or:  I'm sorry that he has left so early.

[Technically, the past subjunctive expresses an action occurring prior to the action of the main clause.]

Imperfect Subjunctive

It was just stated above that "in very correct written French, the past subjunctive occurs only in clauses introduced by a main clause in the present tense."

In very correct written French, both the past subjunctive and the present subjunctive are impossible when the introductory clause is in the past tense or the conditional. In these cases, (a) the present subjunctive is replaced by the imperfect subjunctive and (b) the past subjunctive is replaced by the pluperfect subjunctive. These tenses are, like the passé simple, perceived as literary and never used in conversation.

It is fitting, then, that the conjugation of the imperfect subjunctive should be closely related to that of the passé simple. 

As one might deduce from this example, the imperfect subjunctive uses the same stems as the passé simple, followed by the endings: -sse, -sses, -ˆt, -ssions, -ssiez, -ssent.

The meaning/translation of the imperfect subjunctive is generally not different from that of the imperfect indicative.

Pluperfect subjunctive 

When the verb introducing the subjunctive clause is in the conditional or the past, actions prior in time will be expressed by the pluperfect subjunctive, which is simply the imperfect subjunctive of être/avoir followed by the relevant past participle.

Nous avions peur que l'ennemi eût passé le pont déjà.

Il paraissait impossible qu'elle fût partie sans contacter sa famille. 

Conditional meanings of the literary subjunctive tenses 

Sometimes the imperfect or the pluperfect subjunctive can be used in "non-subjunctive" contexts where one might expect a conditional subjunctive. In those cases, they should be interpreted as conditional expressions.

Si le premier ministre avait anticipé cette réponse, la crise n'eût pas été aussi sévère.

Avec plus de préparation, l'on eût pu obtenir de meilleurs résultats. 

Sometimes one finds the pluperfect subjunctive in both parts of a hypothetical sentence:

Si l'on eût su toute l'histoire, l'on eût pu éviter cette catastrophe.

The imperfect subjunctive of être is also used in place of the present conditional in a few set phrases:

Fût-ce... (Ne fût-ce que...)       Were it (only)...

Fût-elle... (Ne fût-elle que...)    Were she (only)...