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!
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!
As a French major studying literature, it made sense to learn passé simple. But now, over 40 years later and speaking French as a tourist, I have no need for it. I’ve really enjoyed Lawless French until I got to level c and so many questions on passé simple! I’d rather learn helpful vocabulary and expressions/idioms than advanced verb conjugations. Love, the site, but not passé simple!
Just read all the other comments—glad I’m not the only one who’s not keen on passé simple.
Ok, so "Comment cela se fait-il?" by itself is the formal way of saying "How come?"
"Comment cela se fait-il que..." is the formal way of saying "How come...?" but since it is redundant the cela is often dropped.
"Comment se fait-il?" is never said by itself.
Have I understood correctly?
Note that you use à when describing going to or being in a city. And you use de to indicate being, coming or returning from a city.
Does this mean that de can also be used to describe being IN a city?
I also want to say how much I have learned in the short time I have become a subscriber to Kwiziq- " Votre site est excellent !"
I notice that 'nul' is used in the response for 'useless' in the passages yet 'inutile' is accepted as the preferred translation in the explanatory paragraph at the end. Why is this so?
Writing challenge c1 camping: Although she had already been camping in this forest for a week.
Bien qu 'elle campe déjà dans cette forêt depuis une semaine.
I understand that bien que triggers the subjective and confirming my assumption that campe is used because she was still camping at the time, but not sure why the subjective passé is also right. Does already effect the tense in this case.
If faire du cheval means "I'm horseback riding", who would one say "I am taking horseback riding lessons"?
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