Breakdown of Il venait d'imposer une règle stricte dans le dortoir.
une
a / an (feminine)
il
he
dans
in, inside
venir
to come
la règle
the rule
strict
strict (exact, rigorous)
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
le dortoir
the dormitory
imposer
to impose
Questions & Answers about Il venait d'imposer une règle stricte dans le dortoir.
Why does this sentence use venait (the imperfect) instead of vient (the present) for the expression venir de?
The expression venir de + infinitive means to have just done something. When you use the present tense (Il vient de...), it means 'He has just...'. By putting venir into the imperfect tense (Il venait de...), you shift that recent action further back in the past, changing the meaning to 'He had just...' imposed the rule.
How would you rewrite this sentence to say he had imposed neither a strict rule nor a curfew, applying our current lesson on ni... ni...?
You would write: Il ne venait d'imposer ni règle stricte ni couvre-feu. Notice that the indefinite article une is omitted. When using the multiple negation ni... ni..., indefinite articles (un, une, des) and partitive articles (du, de la, etc.) disappear completely.
Why is the adjective stricte placed after the noun règle here?
Most French adjectives are placed after the noun, especially those that categorize or describe an objective quality. Short, highly common adjectives that describe Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, or Size (often remembered by the acronym BANGS) typically go before the noun, but stricte doesn't fit those exceptions and follows the standard placement.
Could you use au dortoir instead of dans le dortoir in this context?
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