Breakdown of Le roi voulait qu'il suppliât la reine.
il
he
le roi
the king
vouloir
to want
que
that (introducing a clause)
la reine
the queen
supplier
to beg
Questions & Answers about Le roi voulait qu'il suppliât la reine.
What tense is suppliât, and what is the purpose of the circumflex accent?
It is the subjonctif imparfait (imperfect subjunctive) of the verb supplier (to beg). In this tense, the 3rd person singular form always features a circumflex accent over the vowel right before the final -t. This accent is a helpful visual cue to recognize the tense when reading formal literature.
Why use the subjonctif imparfait instead of the normal present subjunctive here?
The verb vouloir expresses a wish, which requires the following verb to be in the subjunctive mood. Because the main verb voulait is in a past tense, formal and literary French applies the rule of sequence of tenses and uses a past-equivalent subjunctive to match. In everyday spoken French, you would simply hear the present subjunctive: Le roi voulait qu'il supplie la reine.
How can I recognize that suppliât comes from an -er verb like supplier?
For regular verbs ending in -er, the 3rd person singular of the subjonctif imparfait looks exactly like the 3rd person singular of the passé simple (il supplia), but with an added circumflex and a -t at the end. Since supplier already has an -i- in its root, we get the form suppliât.
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