French language Q&A Forum

During my Dashboard test, one of the questions was:

Nous ______  tous le mot "hypocondriaque". (We're all spelling the word "hypochondriac".)

HINT: Conjugate "épeler" (to spell) in Le Présent

Problem:  Trying to find"épeler" in the lesson page was an absolute nightmare. For the younger guys, it might be easy enough, but I'm 76.

Trying to find "épeler" didn't work, because it doesn't exist in the page.

Never mind. Marchons! Marchons!

Next, try to find the correct template for "épeler" in one of the following templates:

-é(-)er, -e(-)er, -eter, -eler, -Ê(-)ER [Note the change from lower case to upper case in the final template.]

My first attempt to find "épeler" in one of those templates stopped when I found  -e(-)er, which matches -eler

The next step was to find out how to conjugate it. I failed, because the only conjugated verb on the whole page is COMPLÉTER, which does not match the template (it matches -é(-)er).

Are we confused yet?

I followed the advice to omit any question if I was unsure about the answer.

BTW: The sharp-eyed will have noticed the template -eler actually exists near the end of my list of templates. So there are ambiguous templates.

Footnote: IMHO, there's far too much material on this page. It could be split into possibly four or five lessons. The lesson generates two questions in the micro-kwiz and 1 question in the dashboard quiz. The lesson demands at least 20 questions.

Attempts to compress the material result in statements such as:

Verbs ending in -É(-)ER such as célébrer, compléter, préférer, espérer..., as well as most verbs ending in -E(-)ER (except for -ETER and -ELER verbs) such as mener, lever, semer, élever... are semi-regular -ER verbs 

Compare with a lesson such as "Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)" which has only a fraction of the material, and is much easier to understand. Yet that lesson also generates two questions in the micro-kwiz and 1 question in the dashboard quiz.

Hi! Could someone explain why "à nouveau" is preferred here to "encore"? Do they have slightly different meanings?

This is excellent, great learning tool. How can I find more songs with transcriptions like this on your site? (I have an account!) e.g. there was one a couple of weeks ago (female singer, lots about colours etc) that I want to find again, how can I easily do so? Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I just got wrong for a question asking to translate "what's a pain au chocolat?" into french.

I chose, "Qu'est-ce que c'est......" and "c'est quoi..." and the result says im wrong...

The answer is "Est-ce que c'est..."  and "c'est quoi..."

Why is it wrong to use "Qu'est-ce que c'est...?" and i would much appreciate if someone can explai the diffrence btw those 3 .....

I translated "to be honest" as "à vrai dire" instead of "pour être honnête" but it wasn't accepted. Is there a difference between the two?

Also, my dictionary suggested repérer for "to spot," i.e., "je l'ai repéré par la baie..." Does this not work?

I can't figure out when to use "ou non" or "ou pas"  when using the que....expression.  I'm wrong 50% of the time!

This is actually confusing, as it seems the sentence might be incorrect. I keep wondering why it isn't  Quelles chaussures ils/elles plaisent? Or  Quelles chaussures tu plais?