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Walter B.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Vous avez pu recontrer Sting?You give two translations: "You were able to meet Sting." "You could meet Sting." Shouldn't the second one read, "You could have met Sting."? I believe "You could meet Sting" is in the present conditional tense. Unless I have my tenses all mixed up ...

Asked 7 years ago

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Joakim R.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Today's insightA way to simplify things is to think of short phrases as if they were single words. "il y a" is an obvious example. With "j'ai" as a single word, one does not have to think about the rule were the terminating vowel of a word must be replaced with an apostrophe when the next word begins with a vowel. And with "ce qui est", one does not need to think about the rules about when to use "ce que" vs "ce qui".

Asked 9 years ago

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Gwen E.C1Kwiziq community member

«fermer la lumière»

Hi! I've been living in Québec for a while now and i just wanted to check something? When I translated turn off the light as fermer la lumière, it said that the correct way to say was éteindre la lumière. i've never heard anyone say that before, it's always fermer when you want to translate turn off. Is that just a Québec thing? I thought everyone said that

Asked 2 years ago

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D. L.B1Kwiziq community member

Please....Can someone explain the difference between il faut va á l'école and il faut aller á l'école? I keep getting the test question wrong using va...... thanks

Asked 8 years ago

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AurélieKwiziq Head of French, Native French Teacher

Joakim asked : why one says "tiers monde" rather than "troisième monde" ?

Asked 9 years ago

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N. Hilary (Shamrockhill) W.C1Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Moi Aussi !

I agree with Carl. This was a challenging exercise. (I find the written exercises more difficult then the Dictees in general.)

My question: Why "Mes essuie-glaces arriere" and not "arrieres" ? Shouldn't arriere be plural?

Also: I wrote: "la pile de mon portable etait aussi vide", which I believe is an acceptable alternate translation. I am familiar with the use of "pile" for flashlight batteries or electric appliances, and the use of "etre vide" for a battery being dead.

I have never heard the expression, "le bas-cote". I wrote, "la cote de la route".

Thoughts anyone?

P.S. According to my husband, (who is a car buff) "a beater" is very common expression here in the U.S. As in, "my car is a real beater", ie. "my car is really beat up".

Asked 3 years ago

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Stewart H.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Who and Whom difference? - correction to questionSorry the question should have readIn my part the UK we never use 'whom' only 'who' so I'm lost as to when to use 'Qui est-ce que' and when to use 'Qui est-ce qui'. Could you please help.

Asked 8 years ago

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Emily L.C1Kwiziq community member

Omitting "que"

Asked 8 years ago

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Donald H.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Je suis retourné me coucher après que tu es parti.Il faut que je rie. J'ai écrit <je suis retourné me coucher après que tu t'en es allé. Bien sûr, cela avait tort. Je comprends que j'aurais dû écrire la reponse différemment comme vous l'avez fait. Mais avais-je raison. J'ai tenu les deux phrases dans le temps correcte, je le crois. Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez? Évidement, je joue avec cette phrase. Je m'en suis amusé. Don