# French grammar question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 4, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672 "2019-09-04T12:13:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/1 "2019-09-04T12:13:08Z")
Hi
I’d like to know which of the following sentences is correct? I’ve found “tons les pattes” and “toutes les pattes”/“au temps de” and “aux temps de”. I look forward to your feedback.
1.
tous or toutes???
…“les dinosaures ont tous des pattes différentes” (looks wrong to me)
“les dinosaures ont toutes des pattes différentes”(looks right to me)
1.
au temps de or aux temps de???
Elle (la limule) vit dans les mers au temps des dinosaures.
Elle (la limule) vit dans les mers aux temps des dinosaures.
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### Author:  [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/2 "2019-09-04T13:53:13Z")
You’re right about the first one - “toutes des pattes” is correct because _patte_ is a feminine noun.
The second one could go either way. “Temps” can be used as a either a singular or plural, so it just depends on whether you want “the time of” or “the times of” the dinosaurs.
Is the present tense intended in “elle vit”(she[the horseshoe crab] “lives”)? “Elle vécu”(among other possibilities) would mean “she lived”.
I’m sure someone with real knowledge of French will be along to correct me:)
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/3 "2019-09-04T13:56:33Z")
1. If you’re trying to say (all dinosaurs) have different paws, then “tous” is right because it agrees with (masculine) dinosaurs. Your second option would refer only to female dinosaurs: or it’s a clumsy way of saying that all the paws of dinosaurs are different (even the paws on the same dinosaur?)
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/4 "2019-09-04T14:02:16Z")
1. I agree that “temps” here could be singular or plural, just as we can say “time” or 'times" in English in the same sort of usage. But I think it would be more usual to use “époque” in this context.
And it would indeed be a past tense, so “vivait”, “vécut” or ”a vécu" depending on the rest of what you’re trying to convey.
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### Author:  [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/5 "2019-09-04T14:09:09Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#):
>
> 1. If you’re trying to say (all dinosaurs) have different paws, then “tous” is right because it agrees with (masculine) dinosaurs. Your second option would refer only to female dinosaurs: or it’s a clumsy way of saying that all the paws of dinosaurs are different (even the paws on the same dinosaur?)
Doh!
Of course that’s right. I was concentrating on the legs and not _whose_ legs.
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### Author:  [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/6 "2019-09-04T15:07:52Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#):
>
> 1. I agree that “temps” here could be singular or plural, just as we can say “time” or 'times" in English in the same sort of usage. But I think it would be more usual to use “époque” in this context.
>
> And it would indeed be a past tense, so “vivait”, “vécut” or ”a vécu" depending on the rest of what you’re trying to convey.
Thank you Patrick London. Thank you all.
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/7 "2019-09-04T21:12:12Z")
> [@Bayaker](#):
>
> Is the present tense intended in “elle vit”(she[the horseshoe crab] “lives”)?
Worth mentioning that the “historical present” (use of the present tense to talk about past time) is very common in French. However I don’t know whether it’s appropriate in this instance.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/8 "2019-09-04T21:24:39Z")
> [@davidmich](#):
>
> Hi
>
> I’d like to know which of the following sentences is correct? I’ve found “tons les pattes” and “toutes les pattes”/“au temps de” and “aux temps de”. I look forward to your feedback.
> 1.
> tous or toutes???
>
> …“les dinosaures ont tous des pattes différentes” (looks wrong to me)
> “les dinosaures ont toutes des pattes différentes”(looks right to me)
>
> 1.
>
> au temps de or aux temps de???
> Elle (la limule) vit dans les mers au temps des dinosaures.
> Elle (la limule) vit dans les mers aux temps des dinosaures.
1. is “ont tous”. The plural of a group of indeterminate or mixed genre animals/people is always masculine, and “tous” refers to the dinosaurs rather than the legs.
2. “vit au temps” is the one, but as already stated it is still grammatically incorrect since it mixes tenses - the verb has to be in the past tense. But “temps” is singular, so “au” - as is often the case an easy way to verify this is by switching the word for another, for example “la limule vivait dans les mers à l’époque des dinosaures” rather than “aux époques”. Singular confirmed !
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2019, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/9 "2019-09-04T21:27:16Z")
Why not a sentence like “les dinosaures vécurent à l’ère Mésozoïque” if a “historical” past tense is meant?
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/10 "2019-09-06T04:25:46Z")
Yeah, that works. Vécurent, or vivaient, or ont vécu - I should be able to, but I couldn’t tell you the precise semantic difference or use case for each of these three tenses if my life depended on it.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/11 "2019-09-06T10:17:34Z")
Hijacking, I wonder how close the French meanings would be to their Spanish siblings. In the case of the dinosaurs they’re equivalent because there’s no dinosaurs any more (unless you want to upgrade birds), but think of applying them to someone who’s still around.
Vécurent - vivieron: they did it a long time ago and do not do it any more. We are absolutely sure that they don’t do it any more. “The Joneses lived there and moved away years ago”.
Vivaient - vivían: they did it a long time ago and whether they do it or do not do it any more is irrelevant or unknown. “The Joneses used to live there, I wonder whether they still do.”
Ont vécu - han vivido: they’ve done it recently. “The Joneses have been living there.”
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### Author:  [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-question/839672/12 "2019-09-07T18:36:45Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Vécurent - vivieron: they did it a long time ago and do not do it any more. We are absolutely sure that they don’t do it any more. “The Joneses lived there and moved away years ago”.
> Vivaient - vivían: they did it a long time ago and whether they do it or do not do it any more is irrelevant or unknown. “The Joneses used to live there, I wonder whether they still do.”
> Ont vécu - han vivido: they’ve done it recently. “The Joneses have been living there.”
I don’t speak Spanish but here’s my take on each of these past tenses in French :
**Vécurent** (vivieron) : Completely finished action seen as a discrete point in time, they’re dead now and it all happened such a long time ago that it’s almost the stuff of fairy tales (the _passé simple_ is never used in everyday speech, you’ll only find it in literary works and folk tales).
**Vivaient** (vivían) : Completely finished action, but with an insistance on duration : it may be all finished but it sure lasted _a loooooooong time_.
**Ont vécu** (han vivido) : Completely finished action seen as a discrete point in time, too. The _passé composé_ has taken over the original use of the _passé simple_ in everyday speech.
To the OP :
1 - As others have said, _… les dinosaures ont tous des pattes différentes_ is the only correct possibility.
2 - _… au temps des dinosaures.
… aux temps des dinosaures._
Both sound right to me, but the first one is preferable.