"Can I" and "may I" in EnglishBonjour,
I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below. However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal. More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).
The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity). One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ". To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite. I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)
Love Lawless French, by the way,
Alice
"In the case of pouvoir, note that je peux becomes irregular in the inverted form: puis-je, in order to ease pronunciation.
This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"
I chose the c-with-cedille for the beginning of the fourth sentence, but I wasn't able to figure out how to make it capitalized (thus I got it wrong because it wasn't capitalized). How can one do that ?
I just want to clarify can the following be either, 'what is this' or 'what is that?' If not, how do you change the sentence to be one or the other?
Or is it it for example:
qu'est-ce que c'est : What is that?
qu'est-ce que c'est que cela: What is this?
Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela ?What is that? / What is this?Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ?What is that? / What is this?C'est quoi ça ?What is this? / What is that?Bonjour,
I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below. However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal. More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).
The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity). One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ". To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite. I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)
Love Lawless French, by the way,
Alice
"In the case of pouvoir, note that je peux becomes irregular in the inverted form: puis-je, in order to ease pronunciation.This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"
HI,
I was wondering is there a simple rule to learn about the adjectives followed by the complement? I just feel like sometimes I get them and then when I choose an answer it's not right. Should I be learning something before I work on that?
Thanks
Nicole
"you will use the possessive adjectives son, sa or ses (its/one's here)."
" possessive pronouns agree in gender and number with the *owned* item (son billet / sa carte / ses parents)."
Not a major issue but referred to by different names in short succession... maybe the term adjective pronouns ?? .. or a sentence to show that they are indeed called by either name.
Also are 'ses' 'leurs' completely interchangeable?
When to use a, au and chez?
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