Tense & Aspect

[Glen Gordon]

PETER:
  Interesting - it seems the opposite of what we see in the
  sprach-bund of France, South Germany, Northern Italy, where the
  preterit is being abandoned in favour of the periphrastic perfect.

  What does North American Spanish do, and what does Canadian French
  do?

In French, I'm aware of only two past tenses being commonly spoken (as
opposed to written). One is for ongoing actions such as <j'allais> "I
was going" and the other for actions that are sudden or that happen once
as in <je me suis alle> "I have gone". I can't think of much else.
There're other past forms, like the pluperfect for instance, but they're
pretty much restricted to literature and aren't heard much.
Mais, ch'ais po, ch'uis anglo. :)

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Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com