French language Q&A Forum
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
13,281 questions • 28,368 answers • 799,948 learners
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
13,281 questions • 28,368 answers • 799,948 learners
I don’t understand why this translates in the present as well as in the historic past?
The lesson re the above clearly states that “If it/ he/ she is followed by a determinant you will use c’est.” Why then, after taking Lucie’s temperature does the doctor say, “ Elle est un peu élevée” and when taking her blood pressure, “Elle est un peu basse”? I can understand why he would say “Elle est élevée” or “Elle est basse” but surely the given answer contradicts the rule.
Why is it not "Non, ici rien n'est PAS cher"?
I saw in a previous post that you refer us to Ne ... rien = Nothing (French Negations), but this says that you don't need "pas" in situations where you use a different word in place of "pas"... so you could use "n'est rien" instead of "n'est pas". But in the text above, "rien" is already in the sentence, so we shouldn't repeat it, right? So, where is the "PAS"? Or can any adjective simply replace the "pas"?
Please clarify... et merci beaucoup!
Dans ce-phrase-ci, pourquoi "d'activité" n'est pas pluriel?
"...ainsi que certains domaines d'activité tels que..."
It seems that requérir can double as meaning both "require" and "request",
despite the fact that the translations you gave for it were:
requérir (to require/call for [something])and did not mention 'request':
(Nous requérons votre présence à cet événement.
We're requesting your presence at this event.)Why not faire...
Why would it be "C'était un bâtard" not "Il était un bâtard?" The statement is specific. I asked my partner, who is a native French speaker, and he said both sounded correct/normal to him. He couldn't figure out why the latter is unacceptable, even viewing the rules provided.
In the context of this lesson, 'remind [someone] of [someone or something]' means 'put unwittingly [someone] in mind of the subject's resemblance to [someone else or something else]'. The meaning in French, although the grammatical construction is different from English in terms of direct and indirect objects, is the same as this.
But what about the alternative English usage 'remind of' meaning 'cause consciously [someone] to remember to give attention to [a person or thing]'. Often this is expressed in a sentence such as "Jack reminded me that my uncle is coming next week", but could be shortened to "Jack reminded me of [or about] my uncle's visit".
How would the last sentence be translated?
Why is this not in Imparfait? It's a description and the family, presumably, continues to love dogs.
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level