French language Q&A Forum

I know it is only correct to say Je vain manger à huit heures. However, in response to À quelle heure ?,  I've seen the phrase At nine o'clock written as both À neuf heures and A neuf heures. Are both A and À correct to use in this instance?

Could you please explain why the sentence « Alors, reste avec nous et sois notre soeur. »* appears to be using the subjunctive form of être if there is no "que" before it. It makes sense that "stay with us"  is in the imperative and "be our sister" is subjunctive in that it is a desire/hope/want. Is this just a special case or have I misunderstood the grammar?

*Quote from a traditional fairytale.

The above quote I think, should have AFTER replaced with BEFORE.

Selon Lawless French dans le petit quiz C-1 que je prends en ce moment, pour « By the time you were ready, the bus had left, » c’est correct dire, « Le temps que tu sois prête, le bus était déjà parti, » mais à mon avis ça devrait être plutôt, « Le temps que tu aies étée prête, le bus était déjà parti.» 

There was an earlier quiz where "something fitted someone" and the answer was APADTE Á. I also remember that VA Á was not one of the options. When is 'adapte á" appropriate?

Hey everyone, 

I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but  I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she

she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed. 

Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc. 

The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of  ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?

What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French?  (That aren’t so obvious.)

Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻

I question why "pres" was marked incorrect in this exercise. As I understand it, "à côté de" means exactly next to, whereas in placing a vase I would be putting it near the bed, probably on a bedside table or similar, so more correctly it would be "pres du lit"?