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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
15,062 questions • 32,716 answers • 1,040,225 learners
In the A1 writing challenge "Learning the guitar" the question
"because I find that it's a soothing instrument"
suggests the answer
"car je trouve cet instrument apaisant."
which I can see is very elegant but why is my answer incorrect:
"car je la trouve d'être un instrument apaisant"
I can find other examples on the web of similar usage such this:
"...que nous avons trouvé d'être un trait distinctif..."
I understand une dizaine means 10 or so. As do all the other examples in the lesson. Therefore, what is the difference with the last example?
Je veux deux douzaines de pommes.... Why does this also not mean:
I want two dozen or so/or approximately - apples> ?
Thank you.
For the "Je ne regarde pas non plus le télé" vs. "Je ne regarde pas le télé non plus", does one mean "I [like you] also don't watch tv" and the other mean "I don't watch tv either [in addition to another activity]"?
"L'énergie qui se dégage du terrain est électrifiante."I think this should be "L'énergie qui se dégage du terrain est électrisante."
According to Larousse/Robert/Collins (and wordreference), there are 2 verbs for the English 'electrify':
Figurative use (charged atmosphere, give an electric shock to etc)- électriser, with the adjective 'électrisant(e)'
Physical use (provide electricity supply etc) - électrifier, with the adjective 'électrifiant(e)'
Qu’en est-il de Julien et Sophie?
I don’t understand the structure of this question. I imagine there is an idiom I haven’t seen before. What is en replacing? What is il referring to?
Thanks.
While reviewing, I came across this question... "How best to say 'He loved this book!'?" Since the question was multiple choice, the answer that it expected was obvious. But isn't l'imparfait better suited for this example than passé composé? When someone "loves a book", it is not a brief, one time thing. They don't love the book and then forget about it the second they put it down. It is more likely that he loved the book for years, until he died. Or if he is still living, he continues to love this book. It just seems to me that an emotion is a rather bad question choice for passé composé.
It would benefit me and expedite my studies if the direct English translation were available just beneath the full text. Though I usually understand the overall meaning of the text, I still have a few words on each exercise that are not obvious or already a part of my vocabulary. Certainly I can copy and paste into google translate, but this takes unnecessary time and switching between windows. Google translation is not perfect and sometimes offers an awkward rendering. In this example, I was not used to the use of the word pistes to indicate ‘tips.’ I was also not familiar with ‘quant’ or ‘AVC.’
On a completely separate issue, I could benefit from a brief explanation of why particular verb forms are used in certain situations—use of the imparfait here created a little confusion. A little ‘teacher’s notes’ section could be useful.
I get a lot out of work out of these dictees and appreciate having the opportunity to practice them. I think with a little bit of extra explanation from your side, they could benefit me even further. Thanks for your consideration.
L’imparfait - what a minefield ! It’s not a question, but i’ve found that when it’s used to express habits or repeated actions more sense is made in the English when ‘would’ is used over ‘used to’ - which indeed you’ve noted in your lesson. This has helped me understand its use in French.
So a sentence like “Je lisais tous les jours” could be translated as “I would / used to read every day”
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