Édith Piaf - portrait français

Édith Piaf was a French cabaret singer and international star. Read and listen to our bilingual article, then listen to a few of her classic songs.

Note: The tenses in this French article and its English translation don't match! In French, we use the present and future tenses to describe historical stories like this to evoke a sense of immediacy, whereas in English, we commonly use the past tense - learn more about historical French tenses.

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Q&A relating to this exercise 2 questions, 3 answers

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LILYANAKwiziq community member

Her Age

Edith Piaf lived from 1915-1963 (48 years) but unfortunately died before her 48th birthday. This article says she died at 49 but shouldn't it say 47?

Asked 4 months ago

Like2Answer1

CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Thank you Lilyana, you are quite correct in your maths, and Edith Piaf did die aged 47. This has been rectified.

Bonne continuation!

Like04 months ago

LILYANA asked:View original

Her Age

Edith Piaf lived from 1915-1963 (48 years) but unfortunately died before her 48th birthday. This article says she died at 49 but shouldn't it say 47?

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TracyA1Kwiziq community member

Imparfait? Why are you using devient?

Why are you devient? As in, elle devient une star... Devient seems to be the present tense of devenir; shouldn't you be using the imparfait?

Merci

Tracy

Asked 1 year ago

Like0Answer2

ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

You'll notice that the entire paragraph and following ones are in present tense. This is a stylistic means to draw the reader into the story. The same is possible in English as well, by the way, even if not used as commonly as in French.

Like01 year ago

MaartenC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

That there is a difference in approaches to 'tense' in writing formal historical articles between French and English is noted in the text preceding the article, and a link to the more detailed description is given:

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/historical-tenses/

Like01 year ago

Tracy asked:View original

Imparfait? Why are you using devient?

Why are you devient? As in, elle devient une star... Devient seems to be the present tense of devenir; shouldn't you be using the imparfait?

Merci

Tracy

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