French language Q&A Forum

The phrase 'Don’t let it get you down' is generally translated into French as 'Ne te laisse pas abattre'. But, literally, the phrase appears to mean 'Don't let yourself cut down'. Wouldn't better ways to say it in French be 'Ne le laisse pas t'abattre' or 'Ne te laisse pas être abattu'?

Are there any other phrases like this, where the active voice is translated as passive?

[And why is my question suddenly centre justified?]

I think I put "au sud de France"... I'm translating directly from English, but is there a reason why "in the south of France" becomes "du sud de la France"

Mettez au negative: Issac prend des croissants avec du beurre.

So is the answer, Issac ne prend pas de croissants avec de beurre ?

Is it simply the case that "Comment il se fait que..." is not idiomatic? Or do French people sometimes say it (rightly or wrongly)?

Just completely thrown by the imparfait/passé composé choices in this one. Before I started this course, I would have translated without hesitation "This has always been my favourite..." using the passé composé. However, mindful of "continuing activity in the past", I used the imparfait... and, as a result of that being wrong, thought, ok, I'll use the passé compose again at "I really wanted to see it on stage" (completed action in the past, surely?) - and of course that was wrong too. I'm really struggling to see what the logic is for using the particular tenses used here. The irony is, that if I'd followed my gut instincts and not thought about it, I'd almost certainly have got them the right way round!

The test statement is "J'habite _____ Texas." The hint is "Le Texas is an American State." Shouldn't the answer be "J'habite dans le Texas" according to the very first example in the regions, states, counties section yet the answer given is "J'habite au Texas." All the exceptions are overwhelming but this seems to be exactly like the example.

Hi,

The title reads, Autour du monde en moto, but in the first sentence of the text we are told to use "à" moto which actually seems correct since a motorcycle is an individual mode of transportation.  Maybe you could fix the title?

In the first sentence I think it should be written "je ne m'attendais pas à ce que CE soit si grand". (The 2nd "ce" can be heard on the audio file, but does not appear in the text) 

J'ai toujours voulu être danseuse - I always wanted to be a dancer.

Please remind me why this sentence is passé composé. It seems to me that it is something that she always used to want i.e. it describes a past continuous state of mind. I understood that verbs such as vouloir (and aimer, penser, savoir etc) usually use the imparfait (unless a specific time is specified), and that if anything the case for imparfait would be strengthened by adding "toujours" which implies a habitual state. So I was wondering why she didn't say "Je voulais toujours être danseuse" instead. Thanks.