French language Q&A Forum

Hi all,

A discrepancy has arisen with one of my other language learning tools: when requesting answers in translating freestanding nouns, the app sometimes requires that an article be present, ie, "la banque" but other times that the article be omitted, "suite" (for "sequel"). My understanding is that in French the article may be omitted when talking about the general idea of a noun (and a few other exceptions, such as with professions and in certain constructions using "de" but also that its omission would never be required in that context.

In other words, my instinct is that, when prompted to provide the word for "sequel" one could say "suite" (freestanding only, of course) but saying "la suite" would also be correct. The corrections of the learning app seems to suggest that some nouns require omission of the article, which I felt I should report as inaccurate correction.

Is my understanding correct? Just to avoid any confusion, I am aware that nouns used in a complete sentence need the article; I am only concerned with the inclusion/omission for standalone nouns.

Thanks in advance!

This exercise begins with: Je fais un métier  -- que -- j'adore : je suis docteur .
Yes, I can understand that que in this sentence refers to the noun "un métier", and the fact that it's a noun, means you use que & not ce que. The explanation I read on kwizik's lesson about these relative pronouns, said that you'd only use ce que if you were referring back to a "whole idea", a clause with a verb. Well, there is a verb in the first part of this sentence: fais.
The doctor could be referring to the whole
idea that he does a job (there's a verb), & this is what he adores (?)
So then, wouldn't you say: je fais un métier ce que j'adore.
He adores the fact that he does a job.
- I'm still not clear about whether to use "que' or "ce que". The verb "fais" makes me think of using ce que, and not just que."

Cheryl