Breakdown of Le prince et la princesse rencontrèrent la fée.
et
and
rencontrer
to meet
la princesse
the princess
la fée
the fairy
le prince
the prince
Questions & Answers about Le prince et la princesse rencontrèrent la fée.
What tense is rencontrèrent? I am used to seeing ont rencontré.
Rencontrèrent is the passé simple (simple past) tense. This is a literary tense used almost exclusively in formal writing and literature, like fairy tales. In everyday conversation, you would use the passé composé and say ils ont rencontré.
How can I recognize the ils/elles form of the passé simple for -er verbs here?
For regular -er verbs like rencontrer, the third-person plural (ils or elles) always ends in -èrent. When you see that grave accent on the è followed by rent in a novel or story, you are looking at the passé simple.
Why isn't this sentence written in the imparfait?
In written stories, the passé simple takes the place of the passé composé to describe specific, completed events that move the plot forward. If the author had used the imparfait form (rencontraient), it would mean they were meeting or used to meet the fairy as an ongoing background event.
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