French language Q&A Forum

Ok, so "Comment cela se fait-il?" by itself is the formal way of saying "How come?"

"Comment cela se fait-il que..." is the formal way of saying "How come...?" but since it is redundant the cela is often dropped.

"Comment se fait-il?" is never said by itself.

Have I understood correctly?

Why "La vie est interessante"

why vie doesn't become vi'

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 hope a grammar lesson based on  character traits chart with gender and number

Hi all,

In the sentence below, I used l'imparfait of pouvoir (pouvait) rather than the passé composé. I would have thought l'imparfait was appropriate as it describes actions that were repeated in the past i.e. they organised meetings that were repeated over a period of time.

Can someone please explain why the passé composé is used here? Choosing when to use l'imparfait or le passé composé does not seem to get any easier!

Du coup, leur petit groupe a pu organiser des rencontres quotidiennes, ce qui les a aidées à garder le moral.

So, it's been sooo long since I have heard that song that I had to look it up. 

Great mnemonic device!

Just one little suggestion: 

Change the word "Shoulders" to "Pebbles" and you have all seven words which use an "x" to form the plural.

Jewels, Pebbles 

Knees and Toys (repeat)

Ca-a-bba-age 

Lice and owls

Jewels, pebbles

Knees and toys!!

Or: You could try it in French:

Bijoux, Cailloux

Genoux, Joujoux (repetez)

Chou-ou-ou-oux

Poux et hiboux

Bijoux, Cailloux

Genoux Joujoux

Merci et Bonne Continuation !

when we use a pronoun to ask where  it is we say "où est-ce qu'est le restaurant " but  what about subject pronouns?  I don't  know which one is true please help

où est-ce qu'est il?

où est-ce qu'il est?

Hi,

In the last sentence we had to translate "I don't think there will be a problem". 

I know that with "Je ne pense pas" we use subjonctif but since the sentence was in the future tense I translated it to "Je ne pense pas qu'il y aura de problème" but the correct answer was "Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait de problème". Doesn't this actually translate to "I don't think there is a problem" rather than "there will be a problem" ? How do we convey the future tense part of it?

Thanks and regards

Roopa

I assume this is an idiomatic expression similar to the English espression, to be in heaven, meaning to be very happy.

What is the term for seats in coach?