French language Q&A Forum

Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers

14,671 questions • 31,815 answers • 964,937 learners

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it

Find your French level

Elijah N.C1Kwiziq community member

"Changer de"

Why is there "de" after "changer"? Just as we see in your example: "Je devrai changer de vêtements" why not "les" or "des"?
I always wondered about this, and very interested to find out answer (if there is a specific rule, or it's just one more thing we have to cram)

Asked 4 years ago

Like2Answer4

ian L.C1Kwiziq community member

Elision and "ne ... pas allé."The spoken example of "Je ne suis pas allé au cinéma." has no hint of elision between 'pas' and 'allé'. I am always baffled by where things get elided and where they are not. Are there any rules about this? Where should I look? Merci beaucoup, Ian L.

Asked 8 years ago

Like0Answer5

Patricia L.C1Kwiziq community member

I think that "I Ate" is past tense of the verb to eat.

Hi, can you explain why "I ate all the cakes" is not a correct translation of

"Elle a mangé tout le gâteau!"Merci

Asked 5 years ago

Like1Answer1

Leon P.C1Kwiziq community member

But sometimes "celles" ... means "these", as in "Celles sont les miennes." Right?

Asked 9 years ago

Like0Answer1

Timothy H.C1Kwiziq community member

Si j'étais toiI recently came across this phrase in a conditional sentence while reading: "Si j'étais toi,...", but I can't find any grammatical reference to explain how the stressed pronoun can be used as a direct object after the verb instead of what sounds worse but looks grammatically correct: "Si je t'étais,..." Is this allowed just for emphasis or allowed within certain clauses, and is it unique to the verb être?

Asked 8 years ago

Like0Answer1

Jho L.A0Kwiziq community member

Je viens de Philippines

Asked 6 years ago

Like0Answer1

Nicholas D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

why not "tu es chanceux"

Asked 8 years ago

Like0Answer3

Max K.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Quelqu'un and its derivatives

Why are quelqu'un, quelqu'une, quelques-uns, quelques-unes left out? These indefinite pronouns are more natural IMO than certain, certains, certaine, certaines and mean the same thing. In both cases you carve out a subset of individuals w/o further identification. Per robert online certain is a synonym. Here is modern and absolute meaning of QUELQU'UN..........

1 Une personne totalement indéterminée. « On dirait que quelqu'un joue du piano quelque part » (Alain-Fournier).➙ on. Le besoin de parler àquelqu'un.

Asked 7 years ago

Like0Answer2

Susan J.A1Kwiziq community member

what does jamais mean ?

if we use ne ... jamais to say never then when do we use ne pas?

Asked 9 years ago

Like1Answer1