Absolute qualitative adjectivesI recently saw a rule that confuses me regarding qualitative adjectives. It says absolute qualities should not be modified by additional adjectives if they are comparative or superlative.
One example was "delicieux", it is an absolute quality and one should not say "c'est tres delicieux". To me, this makes no sense. If true, many people break the rule. Plus, I don't consider "tres" a comparative or superlative. Some of the other examples given were "éternel, parfait & admirable". I did a lot of searching and can find no other references, but I may be missing a magic keyword. I would ignore it except that the source is usually good and it was in the context of "very common French errors"
The rule does seem to make sense with some adjectives, from an English perspective. One would not say something is "very eternal", it's either eternal or it's not. I don't see delicious the same way.
Am I misunderstanding this? Can someone clarify?
Hi, I was expecting to see a definite article (“un”) before rendez-vous in “J’ai rendez-vous cet après-midi”. Could you explain why this is not needed please?
Second last question is to translate the following into French :
"but I know my lesson by heart"
I answered:"mais je sais ma leçon par cœur"
I was marked incorrect for using savoir instead of connaître.
Referring to a comment made by Cecile in a separate discussion, she states that savoir is the instinctive verb that the French would use when using "par cœur" as it indicates that you know the lesson for sure....
What am I missing?
I recently saw a rule that confuses me regarding qualitative adjectives. It says absolute qualities should not be modified by additional adjectives if they are comparative or superlative.
One example was "delicieux", it is an absolute quality and one should not say "c'est tres delicieux". To me, this makes no sense. If true, many people break the rule. Plus, I don't consider "tres" a comparative or superlative. Some of the other examples given were "éternel, parfait & admirable". I did a lot of searching and can find no other references, but I may be missing a magic keyword. I would ignore it except that the source is usually good and it was in the context of "very common French errors"
The rule does seem to make sense with some adjectives, from an English perspective. One would not say something is "very eternal", it's either eternal or it's not. I don't see delicious the same way.
Am I misunderstanding this? Can someone clarify?
Is there a general rule in French about when to spell out numbers? For example in american english I think the rule is to spell out numbers ten or less and just use the number when greater than ten (eg, 12 instead of twelve). Thanks!
Find your French level for FREE
And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it
Find your French level