Personal pronouns and confusionsHi Dear Kwiziq,
I am confused when it comes to translate the personal pronouns "you" into French.
As I know, in French, "you" refers to "vous" like "You all" or the formal "vous".
And French adjectives changes in function of the gender and number. In the translation below, my confusion are in red, would you mind telling me if my translation is correct?
You've just
returned home from vacation — sun-kissed and
blissed out — but the moment you open your inbox or spot the pile of
mail that accumulated in your absence, you’re hit with a crippling sense of anxiety.
Vous revenez tout juste des vacances, bronzé et content, mais dès l'instant où vous ouvrez
votre boîte de réception ou que vous apercevez le tas de courrier qui s’est
accumulé en votre absence, vous êtes frappé par un sentiment
d’anxiété paralysant.
Hi. I am trying to figure out why this uses the passe compose if followed by 'que'.
Les fleurs que j'ai senties étaient belles.
Would you not be able to use "que j'aie senties" instead of "que j'ai senties", because I remember seeing that when there is "que" we use subjonctif. I do notice this seems to be past tense which is why I ask if the Subjonctif Passe can be used. I am unsure if I have worded my question well, in that you may understand. I appreciate any help provided.
Depuis It can only be used to express a duration of time that started in the past and still continues in the present, or "that both started and stopped in the past." Pendant can be used to describe something that happened in the past, or the future, with" no relevance to the present time".
The above are excerpts from Todd’s answer below marked “correct”. Could someone please explain the parts within inverted commas that I find confusing. The definition of ‘Depuis’ states ‘the action is ongoing’. So, how can it have ceased in the past? The other statement was relating to Pendant. The lesson explains that it could include the present too!
Hi Dear Kwiziq,
I am confused when it comes to translate the personal pronouns "you" into French.
As I know, in French, "you" refers to "vous" like "You all" or the formal "vous".
And French adjectives changes in function of the gender and number. In the translation below, my confusion are in red, would you mind telling me if my translation is correct?
You've just returned home from vacation — sun-kissed and blissed out — but the moment you open your inbox or spot the pile of mail that accumulated in your absence, you’re hit with a crippling sense of anxiety.
Vous revenez tout juste des vacances, bronzé et content, mais dès l'instant où vous ouvrez votre boîte de réception ou que vous apercevez le tas de courrier qui s’est accumulé en votre absence, vous êtes frappé par un sentiment d’anxiété paralysant.
The first refers to the nature of what you are inquiring about: is it a person or a thing? Qui est-ce… is for people and Qu'est-ce… is for things.The second refers to the grammatical function of the unknown person or thing in your question: is it the subject or the complement of a verb? …est-ce qui is for subjects and …est-ce que is for complements.Examples:
Qui est-ce qui fait X ? → Who is doing X?
The first qui indicates that you're asking about a person ("who"), while the second qui implies that the unknown person performs the action of the verb: this person is doing X.
Short form: Qui fait X ?
Qui est-ce que tu as vu ? → Whom did you see? or commonly Who did you see?
The qui indicates that you're asking about a person ("who" or "whom"), while the que implies that this unknown person is the complement of the verb "to see": the unknown person got seen, and tu is the one who saw them.
Short form: Qui as-tu vu ? (requires inversion)
Note that the English language requires (theoretically, in formal contexts) two different words to ask about people: Who = Qui + qui while Whom = Qui + que.
Qu'est-ce qui fait X ? → What is doing X?
The que (elided to qu') indicates that you're asking about a thing ("what"), while the qui implies that this unknown thing performs the action of the verb: the thing is doing X.
No short form in everyday usage.
Qu'est-ce que tu as vu ? → What did you see?
The first que (elided to qu') indicates that you're asking about a thing ("what"), while the second que implies that the unknown thing is the complement of the verb "to see": tu is the person who saw something, the unknown thing is what got seen.
Short form: Qu'as-tu vu ? (requires inversion)
I am confused in this lesson.We are given the following guideline..."Note that to make a command negative, put ne or n' before the verb in L'Impératif and pas after it."I am confused because I do not see verbs in the examples that are conjugated in L'Impérfait.To me, the examples seem to show verbs conjugated in Le Présent.
Please clear this up for me.Merci.
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