Breakdown of Il y a longtemps, un dragon attaqua le royaume.
un
a / an (masculine)
longtemps
for a long time
il y a
ago
attaquer
to attack
Questions & Answers about Il y a longtemps, un dragon attaqua le royaume.
What tense is attaqua? I would normally expect to see a attaqué here.
attaqua is the passé simple (simple past) tense of attaquer. In everyday spoken French, you would absolutely use the passé composé (a attaqué). However, the passé simple is heavily used in written literature, fairy tales, and historical texts to describe completed past actions.
How can I recognize the passé simple form for regular -er verbs when reading?
For regular -er verbs, the third-person singular (he/she/it) form in the passé simple is created by dropping the -er and adding an -a. So, attaquer becomes il attaqua. It looks just like the regular present tense but with an -a at the end instead of an -e.
I learned that il y a means 'there is'. Why is it translated as 'ago' here?
Since this story takes place a long time ago, could the author have used the imparfait (attaquait) instead?
No, the imparfait would not work for this specific action. Even though the event happened in the distant past, the dragon attacking is a single, completed event that drives the plot forward. The imparfait is used for ongoing background descriptions or repeated habits, rather than single, sudden events.