“It was a real pleasure” or “it was a real pleasure”?
This is the question that can be asked when writing a message after an evening spent in good company.
Should we put a circumflex accent on “fut” or not?
Is there a difference between unaccented "fut" and "fut"?
To discover
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Before looking in his memories for the attested presence or not of the little hat on the letter "u", let's look at the conjugation of the verb.
Indeed, the confusion comes from the fact that we no longer know how to perfectly conjugate the verb "to be" at all times.
“Cast” in supported register
In the conjugation of the verb "to be", if we pass from the present to the simple past, "it is" becomes "it was", as the Voltaire Project reminds us.
Without the circumflex accent.
“Is it” becomes “was it”.
However, we sometimes use "even if" in the supported language.
What is this machination again?
The circumflex accent comes with the use of the verb "to be" in the imperfect subjunctive.
In everyday language, we will say “even if only for a moment”, whereas in a sustained register, it will be the following sentence: “even if only for a moment”.
But then, how to remember it?
Remember that if you use the form "it was" without the accent then you can replace it with "it was".
The “barrel” shape belongs to a more sustained register.
One can also remember that the form "that he was" can be replaced by the present subjunctive "that he is".
Example: “He would have liked him to be more conciliatory” can also be said “he would have liked him to be more conciliatory”.
