3 ms·
French learner here: I read that as "Julie would have slept with Pierre yesterday." I take it there's some mood subtlety I'm missing?
by jfengel 2y ago
French learner here: I read that as "Julie would have slept with Pierre yesterday." I take it there's some mood subtlety I'm missing?
- _9y71 2y agoWhat you say is grammatically correct. But if you want to find out whether it implies gossip or past conditional, you need to look at the context.
- cryptonector 2y agoContext. Or even the lack thereof. In this case the use of the conditional implies an unstated condition, the "if I'm right about it" condition. This is more idiomatic than grammatical. It's the same in Spanish. In English we don't have this sort of idiom, so that phrase doesn't translate very well.
- hanifc 2y agoHow would that be phrased in Spanish? Are you talking about the future tense in constructions like "Será que...?" or "Estará volviendo" to say "he must be returning"?
- nachexnachex 2y agoJulia habría dormido con Pedro anoche. As explained, mood is implied. This is a common pattern in news reports, etc., not quite colloquial
- cryptonector 2y agoYeah, it's very common in news because it's a very concise way to indicate the possibility of doubt because it's just "gossip" (as the title here would have it).
- selimthegrim 2y agoYes we do, “…will have slept…”
- jfengel 2y agoMerci.