Breakdown of L'enfant pleurait quand la police est arrivée.
Questions & Answers about L'enfant pleurait quand la police est arrivée.
Why do we use pleurait for the first verb and est arrivée for the second?
This is the classic way to tell a story in French! We use the Imparfait (pleurait) for the background action that was already happening (was crying). We use the Passé Composé (est arrivée) for the specific, sudden event that happened during or interrupted that background action (arrived). Why does the second verb use est instead of a?
The verb arriver (to arrive) is one of the special movement verbs (often remembered with the Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp list) that uses être instead of avoir to form the Passé Composé. Since la police is the subject, we use the helper verb est. Why is there an extra -e at the end of arrivée?
When a verb uses être as its helper verb in the Passé Composé, its past participle must agree with the subject's gender and number. Because la police is feminine and singular, we add a feminine -e to arrivé to make it arrivée. In English, we usually treat 'police' as plural. Is la police singular in French?
Yes! In French, la police is a singular feminine noun. It refers to the police force as a single collective group. That is why it takes the singular verb est instead of the plural sont. Learn L'enfant pleurait quand la police est arrivée and more in French
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