French language Q&A Forum

bonjour, pourquoi on utilise pas subjonctif passé ici ? merci pour votre réponse.

On vient de/du Canada?

It says the answer is du -- but Canada is (f). I thought the rule of venir de/du/des, was feminine de, plural des, masc du. Please help :_

the options were joseph and tom, grace, grace and tom, grace and anna.

now, what will be the answer and why would that be specifically? the person can be speaking with anyone.

In this listening practice, it is stated that the preferred response is 'je prends mon petit-déjeuner' - that is, with the hyphen. I left the hyphen out. Checking on the Academie Francaise site dictionary, it does not appear to recognise the hyphenated form as being accepted at all, and refers to déjeuner as either the first or midday meal, noting that in common use 'un petit déjeuner' is used for 'a breakfast'. It does note that déjeuner itself is also a verb intransitive form, but does not list petit-déjeuner (or the informal petit-déj) as accepted. The Academie is obviously prescriptive generally and French for France, but even for dictionairies with a more descriptive approach, such as Larousse, the hyphenated form is not listed as a 'noun', and only as being used as a V.I. (familier) at times (ie Je petit-déjeuner and translated as meaning «je prends (son) petit déjeuner». On the other hand, le Robert dico en ligne, does denote the hyphenated form as a noun. At the least, I think it is incorrect in the lesson to suggest the preferred form should be hyphenated, as at best it seems to me an argument can be made that either is acceptable (although not if the Academie remains the ultimate reference for material on this website). Worth a look?

This is translated by Kwiziq and others as "elle a toujours aimé cet instrument" so I expect that is correct but why is it not "elle aimait toujours cet instrument"?

The action is not completed, it is ongoing. Why doesn't that make L'Imparfait the appropriate tense?

I see several people have asked this or similar question. I’ve read one available answer and am still confused, and I continually run up against this des vs les.

Example: Men use razors to shave. = LES hommes utilisent DES rasoirs pour se raser.

It is LES hommes because it’s referring to men in general. Why is it not LES rasoirs? Isn’t it referring to razors in general?

Thank you for any help.