La concordance des temps dans le récit et le discours indirect

Unité GR-30 · campagne 16 · il a dit qu'il viendrait : le passé aimante les temps.

This is the single biggest structural gap between Russian and French verb systems. Russian keeps the original tense when reporting: он сказал, что придёт — the verb stays in the future even though сказал is past. French does the opposite: a past introducing verb pulls every verb in the subordinate clause back with it. Il a dit qu'il viendrait — the future becomes a conditional. If you transfer the Russian habit, you produce il a dit qu'il viendra, the most recognisable Russian-L1 error at B2.

The mapping is a small, closed table. Master these four rows and the whole system follows:

Two things to notice:

1. The conditional here is not hypothetical. In il a dit qu'il viendrait, the form expresses a "future seen from the past" — a scheduled fact, not a maybe. Do not let the label mislead you.
2. The same magnet works in plain narration. Je savais qu'ils étaient déjà partis — no quotation marks anywhere, but savais is past, so anteriority takes the plus-que-parfait. Any past-tense verb of knowing, thinking, or perceiving triggers the shift.

The practice drills all four rows; the next unit (GR-35) adds pronouns and time markers to complete reported speech.

Going further

Minimal pairs. One change between the two sentences, and what it does:

More rows of the table:

No shift after a present or future frame: Il dit qu'il viendra. An optional non-shift for a general truth or a fact still true: Il a dit que la Terre est ronde. Il m'a dit qu'il habite à Lyon (he still does).

In Russian reported speech keeps the tense of the original: он сказал, что придёт. French shifts it back — il a dit qu'il viendrait — so the Russian habit gives il a dit qu'il viendra, which is wrong.

Loading the exercise...

Checking your progress...