Breakdown of Après avoir couru, le voleur halète et cherche son souffle.
et
and
avoir
to have
chercher
to look for
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
courir
to run
le voleur
the thief
après
after
le souffle
the breath
haleter
to pant
Questions & Answers about Après avoir couru, le voleur halète et cherche son souffle.
Since the running already happened, why are halète and cherche in the present tense?
This is the présent de narration (historical present). Even though the story takes place in the past, French often shifts to the present tense to make a dramatic action feel more immediate and vivid. It puts the reader right in the moment the thief is panting.
Why do we say Après avoir couru instead of just Après courir?
In French, the preposition après is always followed by the past infinitive, never the present infinitive. You form this with the infinitive of the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus the past participle (couru). It translates literally to 'After having run.'
Does cherche son souffle literally translate to 'catches his breath'?
Why does halète have a grave accent if its infinitive is haleter?
Haleter (to pant) is a stem-changing verb. To keep the pronunciation correct, the unaccented e in the stem changes to an è whenever the ending of the conjugated verb is silent. This happens in the present tense for all singular forms and the third-person plural.
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