More excitement in Grammar!

This time it was the concordance of tenses (la concordance des temps) in direct and indirect speech. Here's how it works (in English):

"He hates me." He said that he hated me.

"He will come on Thursday". He said that he would come on Thursday.

"He waited three hours for you". He said that he had waited three hours for you.

"He would come if you were to ask him". He said that he would come if you were to ask him".

"He was waiting by the bus stop". He said that he was waiting by the bus stop.

See how some change and some don't?

We have all slipped into the bad habit of dropping our "ne" in the negation - that is, instead of saying "Je n'arrive pas à trouver une phrase", we say "J'arrive pas à trouver une phrase".

While we all got stopped and told to say it properly, this is actually a good thing. It shows that our French is becoming more colloquial, because that's how people speak on the streets.

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