Le lendemain, j'allais m'inscrire à l'université

Kristin L.A1Kwiziq community member

Le lendemain, j'allais m'inscrire à l'université

In a previous lesson, J’allais + infinitive = was going to _ . This example that is captioned, is translated as ‘ I was enrolling at university’ instead of ‘I was going to enroll’.

This question relates to:French lesson "Expressing "the day after/the day before" in French with "demain/hier" vs "le lendemain/la veille" vs "le jour suivant/le jour précédent" (French Expressions of Time)"

Asked 3 months ago

Like1Answer2

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

This sentence can be considered indirect (or reported) speech, in which the speaker talks about an action in the future from a past perspective.

The two versions in English, namely, "was going to enroll" and "was enrolling" are not easily captured in French and would both amount to "j'allais m'inscrire".

Like13 months ago

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I was expecting an explanation of why it isn't "je m'inscrivais".

Like03 months ago

Kristin L. asked:

Le lendemain, j'allais m'inscrire à l'université

In a previous lesson, J’allais + infinitive = was going to _ . This example that is captioned, is translated as ‘ I was enrolling at university’ instead of ‘I was going to enroll’.

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