Clairez-vous s'il vous plaîtSo, in all literal senses, the way to further describe an item's purpose is to pair it with the action being done with/upon it. ( i.e. une planche à voile = a [ plank ] to be flown [ surf ] upon ) That is odd to say the least, but French grammar seems to be very similar to archaic English grammar. I suppose the Norman invasion is to blame for that, n'est-ce pas? When the aristocracy speak one language, and the peasants speak another, I suppose they found a nice halfway point between the two, which then evolved into modern English, a confusing tangle of rules, exceptions, and counterrules, all presided over by 5+ official institutions.
French is much nicer. The rules are odd, but fairly consistent. It is managed by the Àcadémie Française , and no other, has considerably less mixing, and is only truly messed up in Créole French [ The pitiful excuse for French the people of Louisiana speak ]. So even if I had to traverse the entire french-speaking world, I would find little more than dialect ( i.e. Quebècoise, Guiyanaise, Walloon, Langues d'Occitan et d'Oeil . ) Bíen faites, francophones!
It is very disappointing that this lesson does not appear to have been modified to deal with the poor distinction over when to use le/la/l'/le with ne. ni. ni. The lesson clearly states "When using ni, you omit the article after ni, unless you're talking about general things and using le, la, l', les."
Yet much of the discussion here has suggested the article should be used for the specific rather than the general. Better and more examples of when and how to use articles are needed - yet this has clearly been an issue for years.
Salut,
Dans cet lesson ça dit qu'on utilise seulement 'leur' et 'lui' quand le verbe est normalement suivi par "à". Je me demande si vous avez une liste des verbes qui sont suivis par "à"?
Merci!
Nicole
So, in all literal senses, the way to further describe an item's purpose is to pair it with the action being done with/upon it. ( i.e. une planche à voile = a [ plank ] to be flown [ surf ] upon ) That is odd to say the least, but French grammar seems to be very similar to archaic English grammar. I suppose the Norman invasion is to blame for that, n'est-ce pas? When the aristocracy speak one language, and the peasants speak another, I suppose they found a nice halfway point between the two, which then evolved into modern English, a confusing tangle of rules, exceptions, and counterrules, all presided over by 5+ official institutions.
French is much nicer. The rules are odd, but fairly consistent. It is managed by the Àcadémie Française , and no other, has considerably less mixing, and is only truly messed up in Créole French [ The pitiful excuse for French the people of Louisiana speak ]. So even if I had to traverse the entire french-speaking world, I would find little more than dialect ( i.e. Quebècoise, Guiyanaise, Walloon, Langues d'Occitan et d'Oeil . ) Bíen faites, francophones!
In the phrase "Elle attire ainsi une société aisée qui construit….." why are attirer and construire conjugated in the present? (The translation confirms that they are, as we would expect, in the past.)
Can you explain when the verb s'installer can be used? Is it just an alternative for s'asseoir or does it have more meanings?
I was taught (in both English-taught French classes and by French-speaking people) that the use of 'on' for 'we' was very colloquial and borderline bad grammar. I was baffled by the construction of the sentence using 'we' in English. I'm annoyed to be classified as 'lower intermediate' when I am considerably more advanced than that, even if I'm out of practice. I need to practice, but won't get much if I'm getting questions at this level and being challenged only by a confusing usage.
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