“Passer un an” vs “Passer une année” (again)I am aware that this has been discussed before but it is clear to me that in certain cases “passer une année” can be used.
For example, on the web page https://acupoffrench.com/french-grammar/an-vs-annee-2/, which also explains when to use “an” or “année”, there is the following example with passer and année used to stress the duration:
“Elle a passé quatre années à chercher un travail.”
So I think it would not hurt to explicitly mention this possibility to use année instead of an to stress the duration.
For the general case (not just related to passer), I think the rule from “Advanced French Grammar”/Monique L’Huillier section 5.2.1 an/année is clearer than the “time unit” vs “duration” distinction: “an usually follows cardinal numbers, whilst année follows ordinal numbers, or an indefinite or demonstrative adjective”.
This rule does not hold for jour/journée, soir/soirée and matin/matinée and these cases are treated separately in the book.
This rule is then followed up in the book with “If the year is modified in any way, “année” should be used” with the following examples.
“J’ai vécu à Londres pendant cinq ans.”
”J’ai gardé un très bon souvenir de mes cinq années à Londres.”
I don’t understand why you say ‘soit du fromage’ but not ‘soit du travail’
I dutifully look up vocabulary for the writing exercises, and usually I arrive at the wrong thing and not colloquial thing. Why not just give us a list with the exercise?
And, if a "best-efforts translation" to English were possible, would "de" represent "late OF two hours", "late BY two hours", or "late SOME two hours"?
Cheers, Alec
I am aware that this has been discussed before but it is clear to me that in certain cases “passer une année” can be used.
For example, on the web page https://acupoffrench.com/french-grammar/an-vs-annee-2/, which also explains when to use “an” or “année”, there is the following example with passer and année used to stress the duration:
“Elle a passé quatre années à chercher un travail.”
So I think it would not hurt to explicitly mention this possibility to use année instead of an to stress the duration.
For the general case (not just related to passer), I think the rule from “Advanced French Grammar”/Monique L’Huillier section 5.2.1 an/année is clearer than the “time unit” vs “duration” distinction: “an usually follows cardinal numbers, whilst année follows ordinal numbers, or an indefinite or demonstrative adjective”.
This rule does not hold for jour/journée, soir/soirée and matin/matinée and these cases are treated separately in the book.
This rule is then followed up in the book with “If the year is modified in any way, “année” should be used” with the following examples.
“J’ai vécu à Londres pendant cinq ans.”
”J’ai gardé un très bon souvenir de mes cinq années à Londres.”
I thought I heard on the audio 'On a passé le samedi à nous baigner'. Can you say either se or nous here?
I'm sorry, but this is a terrible example sentence. Who on earth would refer to walking their dog as "taking a walk with" their dog? The dog has no independence. It doesn't join you for a walk the same way your friend Julie might.
The example sentence should be changed to:
Anne et Antoine promènent leur chien.
You can have the same answer choices, but the correct answer would be "Anne and Antoine are walking their dog." Which is a sentence you might say in real life, as opposed to "They're taking a walk with their dog" which no one said ever.
Hi, for “I'd rather be a witch!” = “Je préfèrerais être une sorcière !”. Should the spelling be “préférerais”?
Also, just to let you know, the audio for “ dont je me servirais dans des buts plus ou moins néfastes...” needs correcting.
Could you please help to answer this example?
In this case, the answer is "y" because of the contraction (à+le) in the sentence?
There isn't a correction while I wrote the test for the section "peut-être au cafe à côté de la boulangerie" It just shows you at the end where it presents the whole text.
This comptine is very charming, Aurelie! May I suggest that you find a popular children's song for it? It would make it so much fun and some of us could use it to teach French vocabulary to the children in our lives.
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