Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.

Paul

Breakdown of Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.

• lire: to read
• pendant: during
• pour: in order to

Questions & Answers about Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.

Why do we say Pendant le dernier épisode and not Dans le dernier épisode?

In French, pendant is the natural preposition to mean “during” a span of time.

• Pendant le dernier épisode = During the last episode (while it is playing).
• Dans le dernier épisode is usually understood more like in the last episode (as in “in the storyline of the last episode”) and is less about the time you’re watching it.

Examples:

• Pendant le film, il dort. – He sleeps during the film.
• Dans le film, il meurt. – In the film, he dies (in the story).

So here we want the time frame while the episode is going on, so pendant is correct.

Is lit present tense or past tense here? Could we also say a lu?

Lit in this sentence is present tense (3rd person singular of lire: il lit).

• Paul lit les sous-titres. – Paul reads the subtitles / is reading the subtitles.

If you want to clearly talk about a completed action in the past, you would normally use the passé composé:

• Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul a lu les sous-titres.
  → During the last episode, Paul read the subtitles.

So:

• lit = present (he does this now / habitually, or you’re narrating in the present).
• a lu = past (he did it and it’s over).