French language Q&A Forum

I can follow that most of the text is in the (futur d'anticipation). 

However, I am wondering why the text switched to using  the infinitive (entendre), in the last sentence? and why not use the Gerondif -en entendant. like at the beginning of the fourth sentence. 

When I look up "failli" in Google translate, it has "bankrupt." Yet the words "failli sursauter" translate as "almost startled" (comme "presque sursauter).

So it kind of means "You failed to be startled"? (Failli faire, mais no?) Wow... that's a stretch.

Is the meaning of "presque" (almost) slightly different then? 

Now, l just have to read Les Fleurs du Mal. So inspiring. The bohemian in me recognizes that in Baudelaire. 

As we encounter these amazing writers, it strikes me that it would be useful to learn the use of the passé simple and the passé antérieur and possibly other now more literary tenses in the subjonctif.  I realize that most people don't speak that way anymore. Yet l wonder, if l were to read Baudelaire, might l  not encounter those tenses? 

Another current example: l listen to France Inter. They recently aired a fabulous 8 part podcast on Simone de Beauvoir. So l am now reading Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, which is liberally sprinkled with the Passé simple and Passé antérieur. So no sweat, l figure it out; the vocabulary she uses is actually more challenging than her tenses. So here is a woman writing in 1958 who is very current today in fact, when it comes to feminism, she is still central source material. Thanks for considering this suggestion.

PS: The funniest thing! After first writing this l  took a study plan test in which 4 out of 10 questions required the passé simple! So my information that you do not teach such tenses is clearly wrong ... or out-dated. Please feel free to not respond to my suggestion if my basic assumptions are wrong 😀

What is the rule for capitalisation here? The Cirque in the first line is capitalised but in the last line is marked incorrect when capitalised.

It seems the speaker is saying "l'impact de gigantesque."  I understand that a "de" here would be incorrect, but that is what I hear.  I presume this is because she is actually emphasizing the end of the word as in "l'impACT gigantesque."  Nevertheless, the emphasis on the end of the word seems over done.  

Later, it sounds as if she is saying "cette décision était facile."  I understand, too, that this would be incorrect grammatically, but nevertheless it is almost impossible for me to here clearly "ait été."  

Perhaps the lesson here is that one should not go by what one thinks one hears, but figure out what would be grammatically correct.  I guess that is probably what we do when listening to English.  We "sort of" listen but actually are just following the flow of the idea being transmitted and fill in the precise details only as needed.