past participle or adjective?Note that the past participle agrees with the subject of the auxiliary être.
The above is quoted from the lesson. I wonder if the "past participle" now serves as an adjective and that is the reason for the agreement, not the use of the verb être per se. If that is the case it seems to me to be a much easier way to understand the construction of the passive voice.
The explanation seems to focus on the verb être with the use of bold for être rather than the subject agreement, so it's easy to get confused. (I tried to use "bold" here but it didn't work, so pls. see statement as it appears in the lesson.)
Going back to an earlier lesson which had this sentence in a quiz question:
Je vais être dévoré par les morts vivants
I went round and round trying to figure out what part of speech dévoré was. I finally decided it was being used as an adjective (but I admit I am not !00% sure). Hence my question above.
see that question below (not from me)
Conjugate verbs in the near future in French using aller + infinitive (Le Futur Proche)
See below. The use of être plus the past participle should be discussed/explained...just say'n :))Non ! Je ________ dévoré par les morts vivants !No! I'm going to be devoured by the living dead!HINT: Conjugate être (to be) in Le Futur Proche
The above is quoted from the lesson. I wonder if the "past participle" now serves as an adjective and that is the reason for the agreement, not the use of the verb être per se. If that is the case it seems to me to be a much easier way to understand the construction of the passive voice.
The explanation seems to focus on the verb être with the use of bold for être rather than the subject agreement, so it's easy to get confused. (I tried to use "bold" here but it didn't work, so pls. see statement as it appears in the lesson.)
Going back to an earlier lesson which had this sentence in a quiz question:
Je vais être dévoré par les morts vivants
I went round and round trying to figure out what part of speech dévoré was. I finally decided it was being used as an adjective (but I admit I am not !00% sure). Hence my question above.
see that question below (not from me)
Conjugate verbs in the near future in French using aller + infinitive (Le Futur Proche)
See below. The use of être plus the past participle should be discussed/explained...just say'n :))Non ! Je ________ dévoré par les morts vivants !No! I'm going to be devoured by the living dead!HINT: Conjugate être (to be) in Le Futur Proche
Bonjour! I am perplexed, in the following sentence "On se disait pas le temps, pas envie, pas longtemps" Is "se" functioning as a direct or indirect object? I am thinking direct "We told ourselves"...?
i'm Scottish and "passer un exam" would be translated as "to sit an exam", so "Vous avez passé votre examen" to my mind would be "You sat your exam".
Just commenting :-)
Can I say "qui- sont-ce for saying who are they?
who are they =qui sont-ce?
they are my friends= Ce sont mes amis
Why is it à acheter?
I would say "de acheter". Is this also okay?
The system says the above phrase translates to 'How did she get it wrong?' - but I couldn't work out where the 'it' is. I thought it might mean 'How did she go wrong?' then checked Google Translate, which confirmed my interpretation.
Could this please be checked? Thanks (loving the site by the way)
Pauline
Bonjour Madame Aurélie !
Thanks for designing such a great worksheet on this topic.
But could you please help me with these sentences -
1. L’endroit qui m’a enchanté au dessus de tout, .........
2. Nous nous sommes proménes dans ses jardins merveilleux .......
In the first sentence , I used ‘imparfait’ as I interpreted it as a state of mind which the narrator was in of being mesmerized . Secondly, I had used ‘imparfait’ in the second sentence after reading your lesson that ‘l’imparfait’ is used for describing the scene , characters , setting of the phrase. Please provide the reasons why Kwizbot marked me incorrect .
Bonne journée !
( I would appreciate to be answered by Madame Aurélie )
In one of the answers to a question in the corresponding lesson regarding articles for countries, Cécile advises that Israel and some random island countries like Malta, Cyprus, Haiti and Cuba do NOT take an article (le, la, les or l’). From the above exercise it appears that Monaco is also included on this small list of countries without a gender. Just out of interest, does anyone know why Monaco doesn’t have one? I wondered if it was because it’s just an abbreviation of la Principauté de Monaco? (But then again, the names of most countries are abbreviations of their official names, so that doesn’t help us to decide whether to add an article, and maybe it’s just something we have to learn individually for each country)
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