French language Q&A Forum

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

14,860 questions • 32,296 answers • 1,003,160 learners

Kwizbot, a friendly bot

Find your French level for FREE

And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it

Find your French level

Stewart H.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Imparfait v Passé Composé

This week's Weekend Workout (31-08-2018) has a question and answer as detailed below.

The translation for 'we arrived' is given in the imparfait but surely it should be in the Passé composé as they arrived only 'once' and not as the imparfait implies 'used to arrive' meaning they arrived on a regular basis i.e. more than just on the one occasion.

Could you please explain.

When we arrived in the changing rooms,

Quand nous arrivions dans les vestiaires,

Asked 7 years ago

E. S.B2Kwiziq community member

Désoler vs. S'excuserBonjour! Could you please explain further about Désoler vs. S'excuser ? I am not sure which one to use and when. Merci.

Asked 7 years ago

Joakim R.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

des vs lesIt's Christmas, so "I must of course buy presents" -> "Je dois bien sûr acheter les cadeaux" according to the lastest writing challenge. "presents" is not preceded by an article in English here, so we must pick "des" or "les" in French, but which one? The way I've understood it, it should be "les" when one is referring to all elements of a kind: "I hate apples" -> "Je déteste LES pommes", and "des" when referring to a subset: "I ate apples" -> "J'ai mangé DES pommes". Thus I expected ".. acheter DES cadeaux". So why is it "les" this time ?

Asked 9 years ago

John L.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

égal (à)Is there any case where à is needed? Or is this just a matter of preference? Thanks.

Asked 9 years ago

Elizabeth P.A2Kwiziq community member

Égal vs Égale

Hello, Thank you for clarifying the difference between Égal vs Égale.

So does this mean égal is only used as a symbol?

I see above both used in a sentence. e.g. Deux plus deux égale / égal quatre.

Thank you to clarify.

Asked 7 years ago

Pokimon S.Kwiziq community member

Is pronoun only used in inversion type? Hi ,,,Is pronoun only used in inversion type? Or can we use the noun instead of pronoun.... example Parle-t Michael francais? instead of Parle-t-il francais? Please clarify ... Thank you in advance

Asked 8 years ago

stephen w.C1Kwiziq community member

"Les vaches, dont les fermiers observent les bébés, se reposent dans le pré." Who is in the meadow?The cows, {including} or{ whose} the farmers watch the babies, rest in the meadow. Question "Who is in the meadow?" it could be 1. The cows. or 2. The babies. This is a questionable question.

Asked 8 years ago

Michael D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

attendre vs. sáttendre à

In one of the 10 question quizzes:

How would you say "Alain expected this situation to resolve itself." ?

J'ai repondu "Alain attendait que cette situation se résolve d'elle-même."

Mais la réponse correcte était: "Alain s'attendait à ce que cette situation se résolve d'elle-même."

Pourquoi? Où est la sense de souci ? L'anglais etait "expected this situation to resolve itself" qui indique une manque de souci.

Asked 7 years ago

Joakim R.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

When is "de" needed?Look at these sentences: Le roi a la pouvoir. Pour faire de la fusion nucléaire une source d'énergie, il faut que... How come one needs "de" in front of "la", but the other doesn't? Is there some handy rule I can apply?

Asked 10 years ago

Modupe A.A2Kwiziq community member

When asking question using the future tense of a verb, is inversion allowed. That's instead of saying Tu iras à la fête samedi ? Can one say iras-tu

Asked 7 years ago

Kwizbot, a friendly bot

Find your French level for FREE

And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it

Find your French level

Clever stuff happening!