Breakdown of Il a dit qu'il aurait achevé le projet avant l'échéance.
il
he
avoir
to have
le projet
the project
dire
to say, to tell
que
that (introducing a clause)
avant
before
achever
to complete (to finish)
l'échéance
the deadline (f)
Questions & Answers about Il a dit qu'il aurait achevé le projet avant l'échéance.
Why do we use the conditional past (aurait achevé) instead of the future perfect here?
This sentence demonstrates the sequence of tenses in reported speech. The original direct quote was likely in the future perfect: "J'aurai achevé le projet" (I will have completed the project). Because the introductory verb is in a past tense (Il a dit), the future perfect must "backshift" into the conditional past (aurait achevé).
I usually use finir or terminer for "to finish". Can I use them here, or is achever different?
You can absolutely use fini or terminé here! Achever is just a slightly more formal or literary way to say "to complete" or "to finish entirely." Be careful of the false friend: achever does not mean "to achieve" (which would be atteindre or accomplir), it strictly means to bring something to an end.
What is the difference between une échéance and une date limite?
If he had completed multiple projects (les projets), would we write aurait achevés?
No, it would still be aurait achevé. Because this verb uses the auxiliary avoir, the past participle only agrees with the direct object if that object comes before the verb. Since the object comes after the verb here, there is no agreement. However, if you replaced the noun with a preceding pronoun like "he would have completed them" (il les aurait achevés), you would add the "s".
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