French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour,

I like to retake tests at lower levels often (A0, A1) in order to practice those lessons while I continue to advance/learn at higher levels (A2). My studyplan won't revert to A2 lessons after testing at lower levels. How do I reprogram it to suggest new grammar lessons after I've been practicing old material?

Merci, Alec

Anyway, I want to ask about the following:

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Paula ne pense pas grand-chose de l'environnement

Paula doesn't think much of the environment

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". . . doesn't think much of the environment" seems neither correct nor natural. Normally, when one contemplates a matter (or chooses not to), one "thinks about X." 

If instead one wishes to indicate his/her opinion of X, and specifically wishes to suggest a negative opinion, one might say he/she "does not think much about X," where X could be a book, a movie, a teacher etc. In other words, X is things subject to subjective opinions.

Thus, in the example above, X as a subjective matter does not normally include the environment, which simply just is (i.e., we don't have subjective opinions about water, air or the sun, which just are, like the environment).

So, in the example, what is Paul really trying to say? Does she perhaps not think much the environment, as in not thinking much about environmental issues like pollution, climate change etc? 

If instead the example was:

Paula ne pense pas grand-chose des activistes environnementaux = Paula doesn't think much of environmental activists, 

that would make sense.

"En effet, ce qui a grandement contribué à la notoriété du lac champenois, c'est le fait que chaque année, en octobre-novembre, les grues cendrées y fassent étape par milliers."

Just a question about the mood here : I would have preferred to see le fait que followed by the indicative here, as it is expressing a certainty, not something uncertain/ a supposition.

Opinions anyone ?

Thanks. Paul.