French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour, 

I was wondering why "pas" isnt used in "ça ne fait rien", as usually to express a negative you'd have to use "ne ... pas". Is "pas" something that has been dropped in the expression over time? And are there other expressions which also use "ne" without the "pas"?

Thanks! 

I am trying to figure out how to say "I am good/bad at (something)" in French. There seems to be discrepancies between sources online about what prepositions to use.

For example, I searched "I am good at piano" on an online translator. It gave me many options: Je suis doué pour piano, je suis bon au piano, je suis bon en piano, and je suis doué en piano. I know that you use different prepositions depending on what adjective is used (doué vs bon), but why does this translator give so many options, and which ones are correct?

Also, for example, to say "I am bad at guitar", the translator says you can say either je suis mauvais à la guitarre OR je suis mauvais en guitarre. Which one of these is correct?

Basically, which of these prepositions (en/au/à la/pour) do you use when saying je suis nul/mauvais/bon/doué AT something?

Thank you!

Salut! Thank you for this wonderful platform for studying French! I have one issue to share: I am an A0/A1 learner. One of the quiz questions "Who is speaking?" was asked regarding this sentence: "Je suis acteur." My reponse was "Both of them." However, when reviewing the corrections, it stated that my answer was "Michael" and the correct answer was "Both of them." I tripled checked and I did input the correct anwer each time. I just wanted you to be aware.

Thanks, again!

I think this distinction is changing, even amongst ardent defenders of the purity of French

Why is the imparfait used here and not the passé composé ? The author only wrote this once. 

Quelle est la différence entre "d'abord," "au début," et "pour commencer ?" Il y a des nuances d'utilisation ? 

This is clearly C1 level listening. Too hard

C'est très difficile, mais c'est parti. Je suis ici pour apprendre le français.

Is there any difference in meaning between the use of faire and etre contextually? Or, are they freely interchangeable? 

I guess my main concern is, is there an example of a time when faire would be chosen over etre and vice versa?  

I haven’t come across "une terrasse touristique" - is it a pavement café?  

Also, it seems to me that there’s an extraneous consonant in the fourth sentence, between du and lieu: qui émane du … lieu lui-même

(Not sure how to flag technical issues in the listening exercises)