French language Q&A Forum

Hi - I see from a previous discussion that the meaning of a verb (e.g. commencer à/ commencer de) can slightly change depending on whether it is followed by à or de. Is this also true for  continuer à / continuer de? 

Are there also slight differences in meanings with the verbs mentioned above?

Thanks - Tammy

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

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’m confused as to why I got an example wrong. The example was “un œdipien complexe” which the quiz labelled as an incorrect placement of the adjective. It is my understanding that œdipien is the noun and complexe is the adjective. None of these fall under the common exceptions nor s œdipien is not a proper noun, so I am confused as to why the proper order would be “un complexe œdipien.”

your example above looks wrong... Martin n’est pas arrivé depuis longtemps should mean Martin hasn’t been here in a long time.  the past tense implies the action is completed. right???