Word
Apparemment, l'équipe aurait enterré le squelette ici.
Meaning
Apparently, the team would have buried the skeleton here.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Apparemment, l'équipe aurait enterré le squelette ici.
ici
here
avoir
to have
l'équipe
the team (f)
apparemment
apparently
Questions & Answers about Apparemment, l'équipe aurait enterré le squelette ici.
Why use the conditionnel passé (aurait enterré) here instead of the passé composé (a enterré)?
This is the 'journalistic conditional' you are learning in this lesson. By using aurait enterré, the speaker makes it clear that this is unconfirmed information, a rumor, or an allegation, rather than a proven fact.
The translation says 'would have buried', but wouldn't 'reportedly buried' sound more natural in English?
Exactly! While the literal translation is 'would have buried', English speakers rarely use that phrasing to report rumors. The French journalistic conditional is almost always better translated into English using words like 'reportedly', 'allegedly', or 'supposedly'. So, 'the team allegedly buried' is a perfect English equivalent.
Could the adverb apparemment go inside the verb, like aurait apparemment enterré?
Yes, it absolutely could. Placing an adverb between the auxiliary verb (aurait) and the past participle (enterré) is standard French structure. However, placing apparemment at the very beginning of the sentence, as done here, strongly emphasizes the uncertainty right from the start.
Since l'équipe is a feminine noun, shouldn't the past participle be enterrée?