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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
15,032 questions • 32,676 answers • 1,036,149 learners
What do the French consider to be a billion? 100,000,000 or 1,000,000,000?
Hi, I saw a dialogue in tv series Better Call Saul. It was "I am not telling you anything until we talk about my dad " and French translation is "Je ne te dirai rien tant qu'on n'aura pas parlé de mon père.. What I want to ask is why "parlé" is used instead of "parler", why passé composé form is used in this sentence after future tense of avoir.
Thank you.
I did a small double take with this question because the English "He’s been to" is a past form of "he goes to" not "he is ". You can say "he was in France" but with a slightly different sense, more vague and without any emphasis on the going (UK English ). Perhaps this is my blind spot, but it isn’t a French construction I’d met before so I’d like to know if it’s a. common and b. idiomatic /informal?
(Apologies for reposting this question from a week ago: it’s gone from Q and A and wasn’t answered. Maybe the Helpdesk removed the post because I queried a similar sentence "On a été faire les courses = We went shopping" in a passé composé exercise.)
Elles auraient eu un chien si elles avaient pu
They would have had a dog if they could have.
If I'm not mistaken:
auraient eu -> Conditional past "would have"
avaient pu -> Pluperfect "had been able to"
1. What happens to the rule about "Si" + imperfect in this case? Does it only apply to Imperfect + Conditional present?
2. Shouldn't "avaient pu" be something like "auraient eu"?
I can see why you could use the pluperfect for "They would have had a dog if they had been able to". But "... could have" seems to call for the conditional past (although I agree that the meaning is the same).
What am I missing here?
Thanks
I’m struggling with the change of tense in same sentence, that is, je mangerai les œufs que ma famille va m’offrir, and then again, je vais avoir du mal …mais je serai bien reposée. Is it because one is certain and there could be doubt about the other? Any help gratefully accepted. Merci
Bonjour à tous,
pourriez vous m'expliquer la différence entre ces 2 phrases ? (pourquoi on réutilise «de» dans la première et non dans la deuxième)
1-Cherchez bien sur Internet avant d'*acheter ou de* réserver vos vacances.
2-Ce cours est composé d'*une ou plusieurs activités.
merci beaucoup
In English there is a formal difference between "old" and "antique". For a car to be "antique", it must be at least a certain number of years old. Similarly, "veteran" cars must also be at least a certain number of years old, which is less than the definition of "antique". Isn't there a formal distinction between "old" and "antique" and "veteran" in French?
.In one of the questions in my former test I shold translate ” your name is Thomas”. So I did ” tu t`apelles Thomas”, but got red mark on that, it should be ”tot`apelles Thomas”. I can´t see that alternative in the lesson about how to sat someones name. Would be good with an explanation on that one.
Hi,can anyone please shine some light on the following: " mais n'en espérait pas moins trouver queque Poisson. I think I know that it means " nevertheless hoped to find some fish" but is this a standard expression ?. Myself I would have said au moins (il) espérait trouver queque Poisson. I don't understand the rôle of the n and moins: it seems backwards to me, and in a way " not hoped to at least find some fish.
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