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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Does negation affect grammatical aspect in this Gide sentence?

The “imparfait” denotes a lasting state or a habit while the “passé composé” is used for a short action which is now completed. “Ne pas parvenir” is a long lasting state, while “parvenir” is a transition which is now done.

  1. I’d say (A) means what you think, but I could see (B) being correct too, with a nuance in meaning. In (A) she believed it and it’s done, but in (B) she managed to believe it but she’s not that convinced and could stop believing at any time.
    (By the way it’s “parvenue)

  2. It’s not that hard to understand that negation changes the tense, it’s not a yes/no, symmetrical thing here. If you try but you don’t succeed, you can keep trying, but if you succeed, you stop trying. It’s the same reason you can say “I’m trying but it doesn’t work” but not “I’m trying and it works“, you have to say “I tried and it works“. That is not related to how tenses work, but more about what the opposite of “not succeeding” implies.

  3. I’ll still cover that question, juste in case. “Annoncer” is a definite action you don’t do during an extended period, but “parvenir à y croirein (B) is not a completed action. Something like “I managed to believe it, for now”.

  4. Yes, but a different tense has a different meaning. This would imply the whole thing is farther in the past. “Je ne parvenais pas à y croire” means she’s still trying to believe it, while with “je n’étais pas parvenue” she stopped trying and has moved on.

I hope that covers it all.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?