Using l'imparfait with ne...jamaisRecently while talking to a friend in French (she is native) I wanted to say something like "I never knew you used to do that!" and I used l'imparfait with 'ne ... jamais' and said "Je ne savais jamais..." because I considered it to be something ongoing or habitual in the past.
However she corrected me and said I should either say "Je ne savais pas" or "Je n'ai jamais su". In this instance, yes it probably would have been more proper in English to actually say "I didn't know you used to do that", however for futher investigation I tried translating the following negative statements (which express a habitual/repeated or ongoing situation in the past) and they all returned a translation using passé composé rather than l'imparfait:
"The guy I was dating never let me pay for anything"
"Le gars avec qui je sortais ne m'a jamais laissé payer..."
"I never used to eat olives, but now I'm addicted!"
"Je n'ai jamais mangé d'olives..."
"When she was studying, I would never see her, but now we catch up all the time" ... etc etc
Is there a rule in french that the sense of "never/jamais" cannot be used in the imperfect past tense? Maybe it's grammtically incorrect and simply saying "I never ate olives" suffices here in French without needing that "used to" nuance that we have in english?
Thanks
In the sentence "peu importe qu'il vienne ou pas"
Where is the "le" to go with the "que?"
In your correction, you said that "nous avons aussi appris a changer une roue" rather than un pneu. Une roue translates, as per my dictionary, to be "a wheel," while "un pneu" is a tire. I'm probably splitting hairs, but it is different to change a wheel than a tire; the wheel is the base on which the tire sits and would therefore be a much bigger job than changing the tire alone. As I said, I'm splitting hairs, but want to know if in common parlance, the roue is changed when the pneu is flat. Also, others have asked the other questions I had - about the use of plus-que-parfait (suggested but not actually used in the "correct" translation) and about the use of encore rather than toujours. Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated!
This question relates to the use of avoir vs prendre in one of the test questions for the subjonctif linked to this forum.
Question: "Ils n'auront pas de dessert à moins qu'ils ne fassent leurs lits".
I thought when talking about having a meal or a drink etc. the verb "prendre" was used - not avoir?
Recently while talking to a friend in French (she is native) I wanted to say something like "I never knew you used to do that!" and I used l'imparfait with 'ne ... jamais' and said "Je ne savais jamais..." because I considered it to be something ongoing or habitual in the past.
However she corrected me and said I should either say "Je ne savais pas" or "Je n'ai jamais su". In this instance, yes it probably would have been more proper in English to actually say "I didn't know you used to do that", however for futher investigation I tried translating the following negative statements (which express a habitual/repeated or ongoing situation in the past) and they all returned a translation using passé composé rather than l'imparfait:
"The guy I was dating never let me pay for anything"
"Le gars avec qui je sortais ne m'a jamais laissé payer..."
"I never used to eat olives, but now I'm addicted!"
"Je n'ai jamais mangé d'olives..."
"When she was studying, I would never see her, but now we catch up all the time" ... etc etc
Is there a rule in french that the sense of "never/jamais" cannot be used in the imperfect past tense? Maybe it's grammtically incorrect and simply saying "I never ate olives" suffices here in French without needing that "used to" nuance that we have in english?
Thanks
Hi!
Love to learn French on Kwiziq, so I wonder if you already plan other languages based on the poll results? German language in particular))
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