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The Past Subjunctive by Bruce Sallee and David Hebert

The past subjunctive is formed much like the simple past tense, the passé composé. Simply conjugate the auxiliary verb in the subjunctive and use the past participle, making sure that the past participle makes any necessary pronoun agreements.

The past subjunctive is used to indicate events that took place before the action described by the verb in the main sentence. If the event in the subordinate clause took place later or actually did not take place at all, the subjunctive is not used. Remember, too, that the subjunctive is used only with two different subjects; if the subject of the subordinate clause is the same, use an infinitive instead.

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<tgroup cols="2"> <colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colwidth="60%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colwidth="40%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Il a été heureux qu'elle soit venue à la fête</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>He was happy that she came to the reception.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>J'ai douté qu'il ait réussi</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>I doubted that he had succeeded.</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <!--/gc--> <div id="pagination"><ul><li class="prev"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/specific-uses-of-the-subjunctive.htm" title="Specific Uses of the Subjunctive">Specific Uses of the Subjunctive</a></li><li class="next"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/activit-16.htm" title="Activité 16">Activité 16</a> </li></ul></div></div> <div id="coda"> <div id="rel"><div class="n5">Related Articles</div><ul> 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href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/understanding-the-french-subjunctive.htm">Understanding the French Subjunctive</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/forming-the-subjunctive-mood.htm">Forming the Subjunctive Mood</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/common-irregular-subjunctive-verbs.htm">Common Irregular Subjunctive Verbs</a></li> </ul><ul class="col2"><li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/specific-uses-of-the-subjunctive.htm">Specific Uses of the Subjunctive</a></li> <li class="btO">The Past Subjunctive</li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/understanding-the-subjunctive-mood/activit-16.htm">Activité 16</a></li> </ul></ul></div> </div> <script>if(zSbL<1)zSbL=3;zSB(2);zSbL=0</script> </div> <div id="widgets"><script type="text/javascript">if(z336>0){w('<div 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