Timeline for Understanding "pût" in "Qu’ajoutai-je qui pût la pousser à me répondre ceci"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 31, 2017 at 7:54 | comment | added | Catomic | I see; the frame of time reference changes mid-sentence. That makes sense. Thank you again. | |
| Jan 31, 2017 at 7:34 | comment | added | Destal | For your question about avait pu and eut pu, in this case it feels like the passé simple (ajoutai) is a tense of the narrative when avait pu*/*aurait pu is like a flash forward to the moment she answered. It is possible because everything already happened and is a flashback. "Le 12 juin 1960, elle se cassa la jambe, ce qui avait entraîné des complications médicales, et l'avait poussée à arrêter la danse.". | |
| Jan 31, 2017 at 3:06 | comment | added | Catomic | I've asked this related question: french.stackexchange.com/questions/24483/… | |
| Jan 31, 2017 at 1:23 | comment | added | Catomic | On specifics of question 2, wouldn't avait pu and eut pu put this 'power' even anterior to (at an even remoter past than) ajoutai--as if Jerome wrote the letter yesterday but its effect on Alissa had already been felt the day before? (I realize that the sentence might 'sound' right even if this were the case as a matter of strict grammar.) | |
| Jan 31, 2017 at 1:19 | vote | accept | Catomic | ||
| Jan 31, 2017 at 1:19 | comment | added | Catomic | Thank you. I actually like answers based on 'feelings' as you say. I think that's what makes someone a speaker, rather than just a student, of a language. | |
| Jan 30, 2017 at 16:05 | history | answered | Destal | CC BY-SA 3.0 |