So far, the tradition of the “poppy” persists, especially in the United Kingdom, where it would be frowned upon for a politician to make an appearance the week before November 11 without showing their poppy. (Read in Le Monde ->
Why do the French wear blue cornflowers on November 11 and the British poppies?) The confusion between the use of “précédent” and “précédant” is not without precedent in the history of journalism! Here is the proof, its explanation, and a little foolproof trick to avoid making mistakes.
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Précédent, as a good present participle, is invariant. It refers to the verb and can be used with a complement. It is necessary to ask the question “preceding what?” In our example: the week before what? -> November 11.
Précédent, as a good adjective, agrees with the noun it refers to. In our example, if we remove the supplement (November 11), we could talk about the previous week. On the other hand, it is unthinkable to talk about the week preceding November 11 without using the present participle.
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In addition to these grammatical considerations, a simple trick to avoid confusion is to try to agree the sentence in the feminine; if it works, it is the -ent ending that is usual; if, on the other hand, the sentence seems “weird,” prefer the present participle.
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Tag : how to write précédent