#23086
03/16/2001 2:30 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
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Do you know what is the only verb in the French language to not have a past tense (or so I am told)?
The verb "to guillotine".
You can see I will be guillotined, I am being guillotined, but you cannot see I was guillotined.
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#23087
11/22/2001 3:22 PM
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Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have no earthly idea of any truth in the above observation by zephyr, but I can imagine a French ghost saying that she was guillotined...
WW
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#23088
11/22/2001 4:50 PM
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Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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#23089
11/22/2001 5:23 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just curious (as usual ad infinitum), when is the subjunctive necessary:
"I could imagine a French ghost saying she was guillotined"
or "I could imagine a French ghost saying she were guillotined"?
"I can imagine a French ghost saying she was guillotined"
or "I can imagine a French ghost saying she were guillotined..."
And, to complicate matters a bit further, should all of the above have at least, "I can imagine a French ghost's saying..." blah, blah, blah. I think that apostrophe is probably a better form...
Best regards,
WW
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#23090
11/22/2001 5:53 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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It seems to me that the original post erred in saying "see" when "say" would make the joke. I have heard that a few persons promised to try to indicate their brain was still working after being separated from the neck. I think it was Lafayette who was said to have blinked right eye only a couple times. But he could not have said " I have been guillotined" .
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#23091
11/22/2001 9:08 PM
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Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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"I have a very little neck..." Anne of the Thousand Days...
It's documented somewhere exactly what she said. Hers is such a poignant tale, her personage brilliantly played by Geneviève Bujold... Edit: Grave error--Anne was beheaded; not guillotined. I need to make that correction here!
Still wondering about the subjunctive case?/mood?
WW
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#23092
11/23/2001 11:09 PM
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Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Still wondering about the subjunctive case?/mood?
Mood.
And it is a little out of our internal grammar these days, but I don't think that the subjunctive mood is called for in this instance, or if so, it would come out something like, "I can imagine a French ghost saying that she had been guillotined." And as far as the original complaint (joke or no) I'll probably shock all of you by saying that I was guillotined. There, I've done it. It's not impossible.
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#23093
11/23/2001 11:53 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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" I was guillotined"
Dear Faldage: I think it possible that your misadventure involved "an instrument, working on a similar principle, as for cutting paper."
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#23094
11/24/2001 12:17 AM
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an instrument, working on a similar principle, as for cutting paper
Nope. I was lying, plain and simple. Didn't stop me from saying it, though. In Latin there was such a thang as a defective verb. A defective verb lacked some of the standard forms. The onliest one I can think of is futuo, futuere, but I don't remember where it's defective and it might just be from lack of observed usage. It's not like it was a real literary word.
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#23095
11/24/2001 12:21 AM
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Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you, Faldage, for setting the mood.
So sorry you were guillotined. My "Four White Horses" thread was also guillotined, so I feel your pain.
Wishing you a speedy recovery,
DubDub
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#23096
11/24/2001 1:14 AM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes....................
She'll be driving six white horses when she comes............................
Anyhow, I think Zephyr blew it.
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