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14,990 questions • 32,505 answers • 1,022,680 learners
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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,990 questions • 32,505 answers • 1,022,680 learners
I didn’t have a clue what the colloquial for “The only fly in the ointment” was, so I had a wee search online and one suggestion was “Un seul cheval dans la soupe”, which made me laugh so I used that. I know you marked me wrong in favour of “La seule ombre au tableau”, but can the used ?
Je trouve qu'elle est raison? If not ps explain.
I think it is very discouraging and disappointing for those who click on the first reading or listening exercise of A1 level, and then they see this passage.
How can we say in French? Let's go boys, we are late.
"Les pommes ? Anne les a ___ mangées."
Isn't it "a mangé"?
Richard noted the adjective ‘violet’ changes with gender and number, despite being named after a real thing. Cécile answered the question. It took me a while to comprehend the answer, so if you don't mind I will add some comments to help myself and anyone else who might have the same difficulty. I think what Cécile is saying is the name of the flower is "violette", not violet; and because the original name of the colour is "violet", not violette, the two are not the same. They look close, but they are not identical. If the name of the flower en français was "violet", the story would be different.
did i read correctly somewhere that this changed in the 1990's??? that before it was j'envoyerai but now it must be envoierai?
I add my question to Walter's. Would you please explain the "d'à côté" construction. AND add it to the lesson on à côté de etc etc. I looked there but thus little subtlety is not mentioned. Merci!
Why in the case of 'he admires his cat', we use the possessive to translate - il admire son chat, when often in French we translate with the article - le, la, les.
I know this is a simple question but what is the rule when do we translate with the possessive and when do we translate with the article?
When this command is negated, it becomes "Ne vous dépêchez pas ! (or ne te dépêche pas). I could not understand the rationale for this structure by reading the current lesson. I am guessing the reason may be because, nous, vous, and te are pronouns and so surrounded together with the verb by ne and negative word. Clarification would be greatly appreciated.
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