French language Q&A Forum

My comment relates to English rather than French usage in that I think some non-native English speakers may be confused by the sentence in the second example you give. "Sarah didn't use to trust Thomas" The past participle of "to use" in this case is "used " not "use" although it may be that common America English practice may differ. You could employ "use" to say that "I didn't use the books you suggested" but you would need "used" in front of an infinitive such as "I used to live in London" or "I used to trust you". I refer you to Fowler's Modern English Usage 2nd Ed. p670 where it is pointed out that the modern expression "he used to" replaces an arcane "he uses to". Just to point out that English can be just as exacting as French. Cordialement. K

“Quel plaisir de recevoir DE tes nouvelles” and “J’espère recevoir DE tes nouvelles”. When do you need to add the “de” after “recevoir”?  Does it depend on the noun, in this case “tes nouvelles”? Because it seems other nouns can follow this verb without a preposition e.g. “Quel plaisir de recevoir ton cadeau” and “J’espère recevoir une lettre”.  

Would be be incorrect to say " j’ai (tu,il,elle,etc) une fièvre " ? As in English "I have a fever" as Cécile notes “j’ai une bronchite" or is it alway "j’ai de la… (I have fever)" 

Can Faire also be used with musical instruments similar to Jouer? Like -

- Je fais du violon.

- Je fais de la guitare. 

- Je fais de la flûte.

Can Faire & Jouer be used interchangeably with musical instruments? Or is there any exception to this?

I'm continually confused about using des!

So, it's the plural of un/une (countable things). However it also seems to be used as a partitive article - as in the example "Tu veux des epinards?" (Do you want (some) spinach (uncountable thing)). Is epinards plural, and hence the use of des???

Any and all help very much appreciated!

Belinda

If I am talking about clothing that I own, but am not currently wearing, do I still use the definite article?

For example “La veste est sur le canapé” or “Ma veste est sur le canapé” ?

This kind of structure seemed a bit strange to me. When we say "Je me lave", it is like "I wash myself" and it's easy to compherend the existence of reflexive pronoun(me) there. But in this case; it's not easy.

So, my first question: Why do we double the pronouns?

Second question:

"Je les lave tous les jours." "Tu les brosses tous les soirs"

Are these sentences unacceptible or grammatically false?