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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
15,037 questions • 32,689 answers • 1,036,999 learners
Hi, I don't really understand when to use the present tense and when to use the future tense after "prochain". eg L'année prochaine, il commence l'université AND En septembre prochain, Gareth visitera Madrid. In fact I'm a bit vague on Future/Present options in general....A pointer towards a lesson would be appreciated, Thanks.
D’aussi loin qu’elle se souvienne: I get confused about the translation of ‘could’ in this context and had translated this as : ‘D’aussi loin qu’elle pouvait se souvenir’. Can you direct me to an explanation of when ‘could’ is not a tense of pouvoir but a subjunctive?
Dear Cecile and Maarten,
Thank you both for your explanations. I have read the lesson you refer to several times, as well as the relevant links, (and done the kwizes), but I still get a little confused with this issue. I plan to review this subject regularly, as I have found by doing so I eventually achieve an understanding of subjects that at first are not clear to me. I am wondering if maybe the lesson could be expanded someway to include more exercise questions or if it could be broken up into several separate lessons? Perhaps "an/annee" could have its own lesson?
Merci beaucoup !
Video not available in the US :(
For the line “Chaque seconde, un hectare de forêt vierge mondiale est détruit” one lesson listed is passive voice. Is this really passive voice, or is “détruit” just an adjective in this case? I would be able to see more clearly the passive voice nature of, for example, “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed by foresters” or even “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed” (with an implied subject enacting the verb). However, I’m not getting the passive voice in the original line, perhaps because “is” rather than “was” is being used. Explanation welcome, as I do struggle with passive voice topics.
Passive voice
Can we say nous étions censés .... instead of nous devions arriver....?
What is la friandise phare in English?L
Am I the only one who can't stop hearing a distinct v sound as in "Tu vas une idée, toi ?" ? I knew it didn't make sense to use aller in this context but I still can't help hearing the guy say 'vas'.
In one of the A2 tests, I see « Il faut toujours regarder devant soi. » and « Il faut toujours essayer soi-même avant de juger. » When do you use soi vs soi-même? I keep getting docked for choosing soi-même in the first sentence.
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