Salut a tous

Question

Francois 1er protegea Leonard de VinciThe word  protegea is non existent in any dictionary. Could it be:protege a? I don't have french accents on my computer. Sorry.

Accepted Answer

Salut, Claudia!
The verb used here is protéger (to protect). That's the infinitive form, still ending in -er.  In that sentence, protéger is used in the passé simple (another past tense besides passé composé which is used more for literature, scientific text, history; this is not a conversational tense but something used for writing). The meaning, because it's in the past, is François the 1st protected Leonardo da Vinci.
Hope that helps! Passé simple isn't something you'd encounter in conversation, so I hope that all makes sense!

Answer

Merci

Answer

Passé Simple Tense.Je protége [ ai ]Tu protége [ as ]Il / elle / on  protége [ a ]Vous protége [ iez ]Nous protége [ ions ]Ils / Elles protége [ aient ]This is, of course, to the best of my rather sporadic and limited knowledge. Anyone, please feel free to correct me. I acknowledge also that most of the people here are right. The Passé simple is almost a purely literary tense, and should never be used in conversation, formal or otherwise.Again, good question, and thank you for posing it.

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I think Dmitri’s singular examples of the Passé Simple of protéger are correct, but the plurals are not:je protégeai / tu protégeas / il/elle protégea / nous protégeâmes / vous protégeâtes / ils/elles protégèrent