Imperfect tense

[Pete Laubscher]

«Il n'y aura pas de démocratie sans notre leader», promettaient depuis plusieurs jours des panneaux publicitaires qui ornent les carrefours de Tripoli. 

This from the most recent Le Figaro Online.

?: Why the 'Simple Past' or 'Imperfect' tense of promettre?   'promettaient'? They were promissing?

How exactly whould promettaient be translated?  I suspect 'they were promissing' will not be used, and if not why use that tense at all? 

Why not use the 'Past Historic', which incidentally I cannot find in the French Linguistics Online Dictionary in the verb conjugation section of promettre.

BTW: Is this the tense that is also referred to as the 'preterite', or the 'continuing past tense'?

Finally, could someome translate the entire sentence plse?

 

Thnks!

[stu harris]

For several days now, billboards around the streets of Tripoli have been promising "There will be no democracy without our leader."

I don't believe the past historic is used in journalese.

 

 

[Neil Coffey]

N.B. See my explanation above -- in this case, the time reference is more like "had been promising".

[Pete Laubscher]

Got it. Thnks Neil.

[Pete Laubscher]

Thnks Stu!

[Neil Coffey]

You may have learnt that:

 

  present tense + depuis = have been ...ing.

 

This also works in the past, with the imperfect tense, so:

 

  imperfect tense + depuis = had been ...ing

 

The past historic is only generally used in journalism with a few common verbs like fut (from être) when a particular "dramatic effect" is sought. The "preterite", when applied to French, is another name for the past historic. It's not so common to use it to apply to French, but it is used, for example, when describing the equivalent tense in Spanish (and it is still productive in Spanish, unlike French).

 

[Pete Laubscher]

Thnks Neil,  this explains it!  Much obliged!

[Pete Laubscher]

Thnks  Stu!

[valentin]

" past historic" !!! lol
i am french and " the past historic" does not exist in french but this text is good "Il n'y aura pas de démocratie sans notre leader», promettaient depuis plusieurs jours des panneaux publicitaires qui ornent les carrefours de Tripoli. "
"promettaient " is a "personnification" Here we compare the signs of people

[Neil Coffey]

"past historic" is the usual English term for the passé simple (il fut).

[valentin]

ok  je me coucherai moins con ce soir .