Enthusiastic support for the passé simple.Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.
That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp ! Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)
I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !
Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.
That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.
In any case:
Great site! Many thanks!
The audio for the line sounds like >
Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.
That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp ! Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)
I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !
Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.
That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.
In any case:
Great site! Many thanks!
Why is the correct answer ‘preservation’ not ‘conservation ‘?
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.
'But at the moment I was putting it on' - how does that translate to 'mais au moment de l'enfiler' - where's the 'I' and why is it in present tense?
This isn't really about the lesson per se, but two English-language books about DeGaulle: Julian Jackson "De Gaulle" & Jonathan Fenby "The General, Charles DeGaulle & the France He Saved" are fascinating character studies & well worth the read.
The man that Churchill once described to FDR as "our mutual headache", c'était vraiment un homme compliqué.
Just wondering when to use il faut que + subjunctive verb as opposed to the former lesson where il faut was used without que + subjunctive verb? It seems to translate roughly the same?
Pour "j'ai réduit les dépenses superflues", peut on dire "j'ai rogné sur des dépenses superflues
et pour "il faut absolument que j'économise de l'argent", peut-on dire "il me faut vraiment économiser
et pour "même lorsque j'ai vraiment envie d'un burger ! ", peut on dire "même lorsque ce dont j'ai absolument envie c'est un burger"?
merci !
In the test, I got the following question
"Elle a mangé tout le gâteau !" means:
- She is eating all the cake!
- She ate all the cake!
- She is going to eat all the cake!
- She has eaten all the cake!
- She had eaten eat all the cake!
Could you please explain why we you believe 'she has eaten all the cake' is correct but not 'she had eaten all the cake'? How would we say she had eaten all the cake in French and why is this not passé composé?
Why is it "je te l'avais dit" and not "je te l'ai dit!"?
Thanks!
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