L'eût (en. Would have)

[l'ᵊyt]

Meaning & Definition

EnglishFrench

verb

Indicates an action completed in the past.

He said he would have done it without hesitation.

Il a dit qu'il l'eût fait sans hésiter.

Expression of a hypothetical condition.

If he had known, he would have acted differently.

S'il l'eût su, il aurait agi autrement.

Used in constructions where the conditional is involved.

If it had bothered him, he would have said so.

Si cela l'eût dérangé, il l'aurait dit.

From the verb 'avoir', used in the past tense in a conditional structure.

if I had known

if I had known beforehand

si j'eût su

would have been

eût été

had

past tense of 'avoir'

would have

past conditional of 'avoir'

eût

was

imperfect of 'être'

était

Used to refer to regrets about past actions.

He said he would have done it differently if he could have.

Il a dit qu'il l'eût fait différemment s'il avait pu.