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14,783 questions • 32,038 answers • 982,475 learners
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,783 questions • 32,038 answers • 982,475 learners
How would "what's that (used) for" and "what does that mean" look in french (considering the three ways of asking question(s))?
1) À quoi ça sert? Que veut dire ça?
2) Ça sert à quoi? Ça veut dire quoi, ça?
3) Qu'est-ce que ça sert? Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire?
Hi, seems like the verb tomber most definitely belongs to the set of verbs which can take either auxiliary in the passé composé, depending on their transitive/intransitive usage.
As an example of such a verb, see your very helpful page here:
Monter can be used with avoir or être in Le Passé Composé depending on its meaning in French
Could you please confirm that tomber indeed deserves such a page, and in general remark on whether about 20 other verbs deserve one also (albeit not very commonly used ones?)
Thank you!
I feel like sometimes I've seen these used in an interchangeable manner (devoir and avoir à). What I told my students was that "devoir" also means "must", so "avoir à" needs to be used in situations where "must" doesn't fit (i.e. "You don't have to go yet." "Tu n'às pas encore à partir."). Is this correct? In what other situations do you need to use one over the other?
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