aimer in literary & formal French
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The forms you will read, and almost never say.
Aimer in the written register
Written literary French keeps tenses that speech abandoned. Elle eût aimé le revoir — the second form of the past conditional — appears in novels and formal prose where speech would use elle aurait aimé. Recognising it matters far more than producing it.
The construction aimer à + infinitive (« il aime à croire que… ») is elegant, dated and still alive in journalism. It carries a faint irony: the speaker doubts what the subject likes to believe.
French keeps proverbs built on aimer. Qui aime bien châtie bien — roughly “spare the rod, spoil the child” — uses that same softening bien you met at C1, here meaning genuine affection. Qui m’aime me suive is what a leader says before a hard decision.
💡 Focus at this level: Literary & formal
👨🏫 How to read these without imitating them
1. Recognise, do not deploy. Using eût aimé in conversation is not elegant, it is strange. Read it, do not say it.
2. Keep « aimer à » for writing. One use per article is refined; three is pastiche.
3. Learn proverbs whole. They are frozen — conjugating inside them breaks them.
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