Word
Le loup attendait que l'agneau naïf eût soif.
Meaning
The wolf was waiting for the naive lamb to be thirsty.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Le loup attendait que l'agneau naïf eût soif.
attendre
to wait / to wait for
avoir soif
to be thirsty
le loup
the wolf
que
that (introducing a clause)
Questions & Answers about Le loup attendait que l'agneau naïf eût soif.
Why does this sentence use eût instead of the regular present subjunctive ait?
Eût is the imperfect subjunctive (subjonctif imparfait) of avoir. In formal or literary French, when the main verb is in a past tense like attendait, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause is put into a past tense to match it. In everyday spoken French, you would just use ait.
What triggers the subjunctive mood in this sentence?
The phrase attendre que (to wait for). Waiting implies anticipation of an event that hasn't happened yet and isn't guaranteed, which requires the subjunctive mood for the verb that follows it.
How can I tell the difference between the imperfect subjunctive eût and the passé simple form eut?
The circumflex accent (the 'hat') on eût is the visual giveaway. In the third person singular, the imperfect subjunctive almost always has this accent (like fût or parlât) to distinguish it from the passé simple in writing. In speech, they are pronounced exactly the same.