Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents/Table des matières
- Preface/Préface
- Acknowledgments/Remerciements
- Brief introduction to the French language (with reference to the French of francophone countries)/Brève introduction à la langue française (avec référence au français des pays francophones)
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- 11 Verbs and moods of verbs/Les verbes et les modes des verbes
- 12 Infinitive, perfect infinitive/L'infinitif, l'infinitif passé
- 13 Present tense/Le présent
- 14 Perfect tense and agreement of the past participle/Le passé composé et l'accord du participe passé
- 15 Irregular past participles/Les participes passés irréguliers
- 16 Past participles used as nouns/Les participes passés considérés comme noms
- 17 Ablative absolute (absolute use of the past participle)/L'ablatif absolu (usage absolu du participe passé)
- 18 Verb + infinitive when verb + that + subordinate clause is used in English/Verbe + infinitif lorsqu'un verbe + that + proposition subordonnée s'emploie en anglais
- 19 Pluperfect tense/Le plus-que-parfait
- 20 Past anterior tense/Le passé antérieur
- 21 Imperfect tense/L'imparfait
- 22 Preterit tense/Le passé simple
- 23 Contrasts between the perfect tense, preterit tense and imperfect tense/Les contrastes entre le passé composé, le passé simple et l'imparfait
- 24 Future tense/Le futur
- 25 Future perfect tense/Le futur antérieur
- 26 Conditional tense/Le conditionnel
- 27 Conditional perfect tense/Le conditionnel passé
- 28 Progressive tense, present participle, gerund/Le temps progressif, le participe présent, le gérondif
- 29 Imperative mood/Le mode impératif
- 30 Irregular verbs/Les verbes irréguliers
- 31 Verbs of the –er type with orthographic changes/Les verbes en –er avec modifications orthographiques
- 32 Transitive and intransitive verbs/Les verbes transitifs et intransitifs
- 33 Reflexive verbs/Les verbes pronominaux
- 34 Passive voice/La voix passive
- 35 Defective verbs/Les verbes défectifs
- 36 Modal verbs/Les auxiliaires modaux
- 37 Ellipsis of verbs in main and subordinate clauses/L'ellipse du verbe dans la proposition principale et la proposition subordonnée
- 38 Idiomatic uses of aller, avoir, être, faire and prendre/Les expressions idiomatiques concernant aller, avoir, être, faire et prendre
- 39 Impersonal verbs/Les verbes impersonnels
- 40 Verbs of perception + infinitive or a subordinate clause/Les verbes de perception + infinitif ou une proposition subordonnée
- 41 Subordinate clauses of time/La proposition subordonnée de temps
- 42 Complex verbal expressions/Les expressions verbales complexes
- 43 Verbs of movement/Les verbes de mouvement
- Part IV
- Part V
- Part VI
- Part VII
- Part VIII
- Part IX
- Part X
- Part XI
28 - Progressive tense, present participle, gerund/Le temps progressif, le participe présent, le gérondif
from Part III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents/Table des matières
- Preface/Préface
- Acknowledgments/Remerciements
- Brief introduction to the French language (with reference to the French of francophone countries)/Brève introduction à la langue française (avec référence au français des pays francophones)
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- 11 Verbs and moods of verbs/Les verbes et les modes des verbes
- 12 Infinitive, perfect infinitive/L'infinitif, l'infinitif passé
- 13 Present tense/Le présent
- 14 Perfect tense and agreement of the past participle/Le passé composé et l'accord du participe passé
- 15 Irregular past participles/Les participes passés irréguliers
- 16 Past participles used as nouns/Les participes passés considérés comme noms
- 17 Ablative absolute (absolute use of the past participle)/L'ablatif absolu (usage absolu du participe passé)
- 18 Verb + infinitive when verb + that + subordinate clause is used in English/Verbe + infinitif lorsqu'un verbe + that + proposition subordonnée s'emploie en anglais
- 19 Pluperfect tense/Le plus-que-parfait
- 20 Past anterior tense/Le passé antérieur
- 21 Imperfect tense/L'imparfait
- 22 Preterit tense/Le passé simple
- 23 Contrasts between the perfect tense, preterit tense and imperfect tense/Les contrastes entre le passé composé, le passé simple et l'imparfait
- 24 Future tense/Le futur
- 25 Future perfect tense/Le futur antérieur
- 26 Conditional tense/Le conditionnel
- 27 Conditional perfect tense/Le conditionnel passé
- 28 Progressive tense, present participle, gerund/Le temps progressif, le participe présent, le gérondif
- 29 Imperative mood/Le mode impératif
- 30 Irregular verbs/Les verbes irréguliers
- 31 Verbs of the –er type with orthographic changes/Les verbes en –er avec modifications orthographiques
- 32 Transitive and intransitive verbs/Les verbes transitifs et intransitifs
- 33 Reflexive verbs/Les verbes pronominaux
- 34 Passive voice/La voix passive
- 35 Defective verbs/Les verbes défectifs
- 36 Modal verbs/Les auxiliaires modaux
- 37 Ellipsis of verbs in main and subordinate clauses/L'ellipse du verbe dans la proposition principale et la proposition subordonnée
- 38 Idiomatic uses of aller, avoir, être, faire and prendre/Les expressions idiomatiques concernant aller, avoir, être, faire et prendre
- 39 Impersonal verbs/Les verbes impersonnels
- 40 Verbs of perception + infinitive or a subordinate clause/Les verbes de perception + infinitif ou une proposition subordonnée
- 41 Subordinate clauses of time/La proposition subordonnée de temps
- 42 Complex verbal expressions/Les expressions verbales complexes
- 43 Verbs of movement/Les verbes de mouvement
- Part IV
- Part V
- Part VI
- Part VII
- Part VIII
- Part IX
- Part X
- Part XI
Summary
It is necessary to treat these three structures together since they can easily be confused. They all express an activity in progress, an act or thought in the process of being realized. The progressive tense is the simplest one to deal with in the sense that it does not exist in modern French. However, it does attract at least one observation. Whereas all Romance languages, and English for that matter, rely quite heavily on the progressive tense, with its attendant nuances, its absence in modern French must be conceived as a radical deficiency. The French language fails to deal adequately with the English He is reading, which has its Italian and Spanish equivalents (Italian: Sta leggendo; Spanish: Está leyendo), and has recourse to a cumbersome but common Il est en train de lire, or the lame Il lit. Similarly, French cannot truly accommodate the past progressive tense He was reading (Italian: Stava leggendo; Spanish: Estaba/Estuvo leyendo), except with the help of en train de: Il était en train de lire. It may be legitimately argued that the French imperfect does perform this function moderately well (Il lisait), but this tense does not suggest the vigor and nuance apparent in the other languages referred to. Finally, a future progressive is inaccessible to French: He will be reading (Italian: Starà leggendo; Spanish: Estará leyendo).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Reference Grammar of French , pp. 271 - 277Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011