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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
15,023 questions • 32,572 answers • 1,025,941 learners
Thanks for trying to help Chris but I'm afraid it still doesn't clarify it. You said that it was asking for the present subjunctive in your 1st answer but in your second answer you say "The PAST subjunctive is used here to express that between" actions " 1) and 2) there is no temporal overlap. "
Perhaps if I ask it a different way
The English version is "Before I started to learn french". 'Started" is in the past tense, therefore shouldn't I translate it into the past subjunctive ie "avant que je n'aie commencé à apprendre le Français"
Thanks
Why is the example « deux-cents » hyphenated, but « J’ai cinq cents euros. » is not hyphenated ? Thank you.
Why is it "d'une" and "de boire" ?
Elle trouve que Sam EST belle.
versus
Elle trouve Sam ennuyeuse.
Does it work as a guide/rule that:
The presence of a conjugated verb after "trouve que" suggest both that
1) "trouve que" is being used in the sense of "think/find that...(clause)," and also
2) that "que" is necessary in the formation of such a sentence?
For comparison: "Elle trouve Sam est belle" would be grammatically incorrect.
Why is it 'je venais' when she is saying 'I was calling' rather than using appeler e.g. J'appelais simplement...'?
Thanks
Bonjour!
Hi I was wondering when looking over the Qu'est - ce que c'est is it correct to always use that since it would be more formal? Or can you use c'est quoi when talking to a friend?
Merci
Nicole
Very 'tricky/unnatural' syntax for this 'idiom'
le gâteau était en forme de fusée ! so forme and fusée are two nouns with noun 2 acting as adjective (like 'la salle de classe). No article before first noun because of preposition 'en' which kinda fools us(well me) a bit. I tried "they made rocket shaped cakes" and got "ils ont fait des gâteaux en forme de fusée". Rockets have ONE SHAPE and thus all the cakes had that ONE shape.
I tried "they made cards in the shapes of flowers" and got "ils ont fait des cartes en forme de fleurs". Not 'formes'! Usually even behind idioms are solid grammatical truths.. I suspect this is a dumb question but does the use of 'en' in this context require a singular noun. Examples of 'not' dont come to mind... unless with a noun like 'larmes' which is really be default plural.
In a quiz my answer to "You [formal] are cold" was "Vous êtes froid" but it was marked wrong with the correct answer supposed to be Vous avez froid. Contradictions the lesson entirely !
For wild boars, can we use 'le marcassin'?
What is triggering the use of 'en' in the sentence 'le destin en a décidé autrement' ? Is it the fact that 'décider' implies a clause starting with 'de' - or something else ?
I often can't see a simple 'de...' clause that could be interchanged with the 'en'.
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