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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,677 questions • 31,799 answers • 963,868 learners
I'm unsure of when/how to use des
If I want to use des as in the plural indefinite article, like des carottes would it be:
J'ai besoin des carottes - I need some carrots.
Or would that sentence translate as: I need THE carrots because de+les= des?
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-- Chris.
You're washing yourself! (i.e. You do it on your own!)
I thought when it means on your own it is 'tout seul'. Is this phrase idiomatic, and doesn't necessary mean 'washing'? I am confused with i.e. you do it on your own. For example, can I use this phrase to say a kid baked a cake on his own?
My understanding is that you use dans when referring to a specific place (which is preceded by an article) while en is used to refer to a more general, abstract or symbolic place (no article).
Je suis dans la classe. vs Il est en classe.
I’m in the classroom. vs He is in class.
But then the following example is given that confuses me:
Je vais en ville - I’m going TO town. Why is it not written using “à?”
Thank you for any help!
In the explannation above, it says:
"To express lacking [something], you will use manquer de or d' + [thing].
You do not need to use the partitive articles (du, de l', de la, des) here, just as you wouldn't say I lack thesugar but simply I lack sugar:"
It's a bit confusing because then all the examples use "de". You really have to your know your grammatical terms! I wonder if it would be clearer to say:
"You do not need to use the definite articles (le, l', la, les) here".
Just a thought.
So instead of using Je I have to use J'ai ? Am I understanding this correctly?
Isn't there a commonly used or a popular option from the 2 duplicates? Maybe a little asterisk could go a long way for newbies like me :)
In the lesson it says: In French, you use pour + [durée] only to express a duration in the future., however in Lawless French:
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/depuis-vs-il-y-a/?fbclid=IwAR2Yy7q_glAFPUv54NKv_xYP9EW4oqW84FTg9NIggZZ3CBgjSxE3JPbHAbc
SynonymsPour and pendant can replace depuis only when the verb is in the past tense.
J’étudiais pour / pendant quatre heures quand il a téléphoné. I’d been studying for four hours when he called.J’étais anxieux pour / pendant deux semaines. I’d been anxious for two weeks.It seems to contradict this. So I am confused. Can someone clarify please.
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