Breakdown of L'expert aurait déchiffré le vieux manuscrit.
avoir
to have
vieux
old
l'expert
the expert (m)
déchiffrer
to decipher
Questions & Answers about L'expert aurait déchiffré le vieux manuscrit.
The English translation says 'would have deciphered,' but doesn't this imply 'reportedly deciphered' in French media?
Exactly! This sentence uses the 'journalistic conditional' (le conditionnel journalistique). In French news, the past conditional (aurait déchiffré) is often used to state unverified or unconfirmed facts. While the literal translation is 'would have deciphered,' a much more natural English equivalent in a news context is 'reportedly deciphered' or 'allegedly deciphered.'
How exactly is the past conditional formed here?
The past conditional is a compound tense, meaning it consists of two parts. You form it by taking the conditional present of the auxiliary verb (here, avoir conjugated as aurait) and adding the past participle of the main verb (déchiffré).
Why is the adjective vieux placed before manuscrit instead of after it?
Most French adjectives go after the noun, but vieux is a common exception. It belongs to the BANGS group of adjectives (Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size) which are placed before the noun. Because vieux describes age, it comes immediately before manuscrit.
Does déchiffré have anything to do with numbers, since it looks like the word for a digit?