Learn French: L'expert venait de découvrir la vérité : le pigment est moderne. - The expert had just discovered the truth: the pigment is modern.

The phrase venir de + infinitive is used to express the recent past. When you use the present tense (Il vient de découvrir), it translates to "He has just discovered." By putting venir in the imperfect tense (venait), the action is shifted further back in time, changing the meaning to "He had just discovered."

The first part of the sentence is in the past (venait), so why is the second part in the present tense (est moderne)?

Even though the discovery happened in the past, the fact that the pigment is modern is a permanent state or an ongoing reality. In French, you can use the present tense to state a current, unchanging truth even if the main narrative is in the past, just like in English.

If the expert hadn't discovered the truth yet but merely suspected it, how would we say "The expert suspected that the pigment was modern" using the verbs from this lesson?

You would use se douter que followed by the indicative: L'expert se doutait que le pigment était moderne. Because se douter que means "to suspect" or "to have a strong feeling that something is true," it expresses certainty and takes the indicative. If he doubted it, you would use douter que with the subjunctive: L'expert doutait que le pigment soit moderne.

Is there a specific French punctuation rule to remember for the colon before le pigment est moderne?