French language Q&A Forum

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!

If I am recalling something from the past, do I need to use PC or imparfait?

For eg: I got down from the train that day.

Je me suis descendu du train ca jour

OR

Je descendais du train ca jour?

Which one is correct?

Bonjour,

I'm curious to learn why 'brun' is an unacceptable translation of 'brown' (as applied to hair colour), in favour of 'marron' which is just a particular shade of brown.

In the example,  why is 'you would have been in trouble given as vous auriez eu des problems'? I would have expected 'vous auriez été .....'  What am I missing?

This is probably a very fine distinction. "I got on my horse", according to the lesson would be "J'ai monté mon cheval." So why is it incorrect to say, ''Lucas a monté la nouvelle armoire de sa sœur.'' - "Lucas got on his sister's new wardrobe"?"

It breaks my heart that due to the Trump-effect, aka his divisive rhetoric, what it means "to be an American" is not a settled debate; and it's something spreading around the world. I suppose there will always be a portion of any populous that views "patrioism" through a more "nationalistic" lenses.

Paul should have left earlier is given as 'Paul aurait du partir plus tot'.

I could have learnt to swim is given as 'J'aurais pu apprendre a nager'

These are exactly the same constructions, therefore they can not both be correct.

(Apologies for the absence of diacritic marks)