French language Q&A Forum

"You have been very lucky that day", "Did you have my message?", and "I had three presents for my birthday", are literal translations from the French - they are NOT English.  "You were very lucky that day", "Did you get (receive) my message?", and "I got (received) three presents for my birthday", would be correct English versions of those sentences.  This might be of concern to non-native English speakers who are using this program to learn French.  It seems to me that it would be best to learn to use BOTH languages correctly.

I can say, "I am bringing two bottles of wine there" I believe like this:
J'y apporte deux bouteilles de vin.

Can I say, "I am bringing two of them there" like this?
J'y en apporte deux.

Or would it be:
J'en y apporte deux.

Or would you use a completely different construction?

thanks, Scott

Bonjour Madame,

I have often read about the usage of "Penser à + (quelqu'un)"

But in the sentence from the lesson which reads-

"Nous pensons à faire nos devoirs. Nous y pensons"

Here I think the form "penser de + (quelquechose) should be used as the people are forming an opinion of something(doing their homework)

So consequently the phrase should be replaced by 'en'.

The same thought is for the very next sentence.

Pls guide and verify whether my thought is correct or not.

Merci beaucoup.

Ils ________ demeuré à la campagne l'été dernier.They stayed in the countryside last summer.

For me, it is obvious that you should use "avoir" as "demeuré" does not agree in number with "ils". Perhaps if the subject pronoun were singular more care and thought would be required in deciding whether the verb is "être" or "avoir". Just a thought!

In the C1 writing challenge "A Ghost Story" the partial sentence "While I was pulling weeds" in the context "While I was pulling weeds ... I heard..." was translated "Tandis que j'arrachais les mauvaises herbes". "Alors que" was also suggested but my answer "Pendant que" was not. Why is that?

Larousse (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais/while/624050) translates "while" as "pendant que" when it refers to a simultaneity of time (e.g. pendant que vous serez à Londres il faut visiter le British Museum), whereas "tandis que" and "alors que" it says are applicable to the case where "while" is used in the sense of "whereas" (e.g. elle est de gauche tandis qu'il est conservateur).