Translating the Spanish imperfect subjunctive into French

[Ser]

I'm really unclear on how to handle this particular situation:

Let's take the following sentence:

J'espère qu'ils me le disent bientôt.
Espero que me lo digan pronto.
I hope they tell me soon.

What if I put the whole time frame in the past? (I.e., I don't hope that they're gonna tell me anymore.)

J'espérais qu'ils me le disaient?/diraient?/disent? bientôt (mais à la fin ils ne me l'ont pas dit).
Esperaba que me lo dijeran pronto (pero al final no me lo dijeron).
I was hoping they would tell me/they were going to tell me soon (but in the end they didn't).

[Ziz]

I believe modern French uses the present subjunctive even with an imperfect verb. Espérer takes the indicative, btw.

Je voulais qu'il le fasse.
"I wanted him to do it."

Just looking at Google results, with je voulais que..., this seems to be true.

Je voulais qu'ils comprennent..., je voulais qu'on m'écoute..., etc.

EDIT: On second thought, Google provides both an present subjunctive and a conditional after j'espérais. Some grammars say that espérer, even when negated is never followed by the subjunctive, but in actual usage it seems more wishy-washy. So... conditional, perhaps?

[Ser]

I believe modern French uses the present subjunctive even with an imperfect verb. Espérer takes the indicative, btw.

Interesting, I didn't know that was the prescriptivist stance. It seems people do use it with a subjuntive though, as this page says, or as Google shows.

Je voulais qu'il le fasse.
"I wanted him to do it."

Just looking at Google results, with je voulais que..., this seems to be true.

Je voulais qu'ils comprennent..., je voulais qu'on m'écoute..., etc.

This seems to be right! Thanks.

[Legion]

The example sentence would take a future indicative (j'espère qu'ils me le diront bientôt), but it can actually take a subjunctive in other circumstances (this is considered faulty by some, but not all grammarians), so > j'espéraient qu'ils me le diraient *o* j'espéraient qu'ils me le disent are generally both acceptable.


And yeah in general modern French allows the present subjunctive after any tense:

Il veut que tu viennes.
Il voudra que tu viennes.
Il voudrait que tu viennes.
Il voulait que tu viennes.
Il a voulu que tu viennes.
Il avait voulu que tu viennes.
Il aura voulu que tu viennes.
Il aurait voulu que tu viennes.

Few people would argue that only "Il voulait que tu vinsses" is correct and that "il voulait que tu viennes" is faulty.

[hwhatting]

j'espéraient

I assume that's a typo?

[Legion]

Yes.

[Ser]

And yeah in general modern French allows the present subjunctive after any tense:

Il veut que tu viennes.
Il voudra que tu viennes.
Il voudrait que tu viennes.
Il voulait que tu viennes.
Il a voulu que tu viennes.
Il avait voulu que tu viennes.
Il aura voulu que tu viennes.
Il aurait voulu que tu viennes.

That's pretty interesting.

The example sentence would take a future indicative (j'espère qu'ils me le diront bientôt), but it can actually take a subjunctive in other circumstances (this is considered faulty by some, but not all grammarians), so > j'espéraient qu'ils me le diraient *o* j'espéraient qu'ils me le disent are generally both acceptable.

Urgh... In general it's pretty annoying how there's a large number of disagreements between when you use the subj. in Spanish and when you do in French. Then you have examples like:

• Me dijo que viniera/venga más tarde.
  He told me to come later.
  Il m'a dit de venir plus tard.
  *Il m'a dit que je vienne plus tard.

By the above and a comparison to Spanish you'd expect que je vienne... but not really. (Before anybody asks: I've no idea when to use viniera or venga in Spanish in this sentence, but they're not just interchangeable. In particular, it seems that if you already ended up showing up, whether later or not, then it cannot be venga.)

Yes.

Are you sure that you pronounce it with a geminate consonant then? Or perhaps it's acceptable to pronounce it [ɛspeʁɛ]?

[Legion]

Yes.

Are you sure that you pronounce it with a geminate consonant then? Or perhaps it's acceptable to pronounce it [ɛspeʁɛ]?

The typo is that I had put an -aient ending where it should have been -ais; those are pronounced the same even by crazy people who pronounce -ai and -ais distinctly.

[RTLPM]

Yo, I'm back and fuck you am surprised how after that long time you still have that in head. Stop, just stop, show some maturity, god...

Are you sure that you pronounce it with a geminate consonant then? Or perhaps it's acceptable to pronounce it [ɛspeʁɛ]?

Do it that way, yes. I recommend you to not geminate it if it's in Imparfait, it could easily be misheard for an Indicatif Futur (or Conditionnel Présent) in Standard French.

[MisterBernie]

Yo, I'm back and fuck you

Stop, just stop, show some maturity, god..

[RTLPM]

Yeah, where's the prob? (I wonder why people are hating on me here on ZBB with Americans, but everyone which are mostly Swede or English or Quebecker has never hated me on CBB for debating...)

[Ser]

how after that long time you still have that in head

Have what in the head?

Yeah, where's the prob?

Swearing at others to reply their criticism (? not sure what you're referring to that some person/people here have in their head) is terribly immature, and yet you're calling these other people immature.

(I wonder why people are hating on me here on ZBB with Americans, but everyone which are mostly Swede or English or Quebecker has never hated me on CBB for debating...)

Except that as for the ones who've criticized you, one is French, the other is British (and English in fact), the other is German, and I'm Central American. And either way, our nationalities are irrelevant, or what, you wanna make this a flamewar of patriotism? Stop all this silly over-defensiveness.

[RTLPM]

Anyway, I haven't called anything about him, lol, you and I can't tell anyone's level of maturity over the internet; this leads us to a tie. Let's go back to the main topic of this forum, ok? Languages. :3

You can bla bla if you want, I won't comment.

[Legion]

Go away.

[Astraios]

(I wonder why people are hating on me here on ZBB with Americans, but everyone which are mostly Swede or English or Quebecker has never hated me on CBB for debating...)

I thought you said you didn't need to practice your English...?


Also:

Go away.

[RTLPM]

(I wonder why people are hating on me here on ZBB with Americans, but everyone which are mostly Swede or English or Quebecker has never hated me on CBB for debating...)

I thought you said you didn't need to practice your English...?


Also:

Go away.

Bla bla bla...

No? I just won't. Stop it, I don't hate any of you. Otherwise I'd be gone since a long time.

I thought you said you didn't need to practice your English...?

I wonder why you ask for perfection while you are absolutely not.

I suggest you two stop being cool asses because you are on the internet.

Please read this and apply it before we're doomed for good: How to Escape a Flame War

[Astraios]

Bla bla bla...

No? I just won't. Stop it, I don't hate any of you. Otherwise I'd be gone since a long time.

Lol.

I wonder why you ask for perfection while you are absolutely not.

I wonder why you say you don't need to practice English when you actually do.

I suggest you two stop being cool asses because you are on the internet.

I suggest you stop telling us what to do after having been pretty rude to us (and insulting me, whether you did it knowingly or not).

Please read this and apply it before we're doomed for good: How to Escape a Flame War

You think reading that will stop the world ending in December 2012?

[RTLPM]

This time I kept myself calm and polite. I attacked neither of you. And you're turning my last line into a ridiculous one; I bet you haven't even read it, which is not nice. Ok. I don't mind. I'll apply it myself, and you can flame alone. Last words on all this.

[Astraios]

This time I kept myself calm and polite. I attacked neither of you.

"Bla bla bla" and "stop being cool asses because you're on the internet" are polite? Um, no.

And you're turning my last line into a ridiculous one; I bet you haven't even read it, which is not nice. Ok. I don't mind. I'll apply it myself, and you can flame alone. Last words on all this.

I'm flaming? This is mildly unfriendly conversation, not flaming. But yes, I did turn the line ridiculous, well done. And no, I didn't read it. And why should I be nice to you? You've not exactly shown that you're trying to be particularly nice back...