Unexpected position for “leur”Hi, with regard to:
“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”
Half of the answers are of the type:
“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”
This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times.
The other half are of the type:
“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”
This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?
Why is it 'Elle me rappelle Paula' rather than 'elle rappelle Paula à moi' ?
Dans ce texte la prononciation de "la ville" n'est pas de tout claire !
Je cherche mon dictionnaire!
I notice in the sentence 'l'animal perdu s'est mis à dévaster les plantations, manger les fruits, et même boire le bandji' that the à is not repeated before the later infinitives. I thought repeating this preposition was usual - or is that only when it comes before nouns?
Hi, with regard to:
“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”
Half of the answers are of the type:
“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”
This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times.
The other half are of the type:
“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”
This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?
How would you say: "It is hot and sunny?"
Il fait chaud et il y a du soleil?
NB I don't understand why in French hot is an adjective and sunny is a noun...
I understand from the disucssion that you can use depuis with the present tense or passé composé but I have this question:
Depuis quand est-ce que vous êtes vous mariés ? ( a point in time in the past)
Asking a person who is married how long they've been married (and still are): Vous êtes vous mariés depuis 30 ans? (Past tense so does this mean they're no longer married?) or, should you say, Vous êtes mariés depuis 40 ans? (still married).
This always trips me up so thank you ahead of time for your help!
Why the n in n'arrive? Does this not now translate as 'before it happened'?
How do we know when to use the verb “avoir” or when we have to use the verb “être”? Or is that something we just need to memorize?
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