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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,042 questions • 30,442 answers • 884,952 learners
Hi - Could someone explain to me why the line "he told me that he needed a new raincoat" is translated into French without the adjective "new"? (..il m'a dit qu'il avait besoin d'un imperméable). Thanks.
Please could we have the facility to click on an English translation for the phrases in the dictation text?
What is the minimum required to maintain a Day Streak and is the day counted from midnight in local time? For example If I test my study list it is a test of 10 questions. But if I Test one of my notebooks it is usually fewer than ten questions. Will a test on a Notebook with only one question still count towards the Day Streak? I guess I could experiment but I don't want to lose my current streak!!
The translation says "like alongside clear springs."
Does the word "golfes" mean "springs"?
Bonjour,
I noticed that in the video attached above, sometimes du is used rather than de with retard, for example - J'ai eu du retard / Le train a du retard.
While in this lesson, it mentions that "avoir (5 minutes) de retard".
Is it when "avoir ... de retard" uses with no specific time, the "de" can change to "du" ?
Merci d'avance!
Tecla
I dont understand why se faire refaire isn't conjugated to [s'est fait refaire] but s'est fait poser is conjugated.
Also why isn't the causative faire used in the liposuction phrase? :
elle a eu plusieurs liposuccions
Why is it le nez but ses lèvres?
Could you point me to a reference that would explain and describe the evolution of the use of le passé simple? I understand it's mostly used for literature but I can't find an article that describes it's origin. Does it stem (no pun intended) from French's latin roots, Langue d'oil, Germanic influences? Thanks!
To emphasise that a (recurring) action in the past has now stopped happening with depuis, you can also use Présent indicatif with ne ... plus (not any more) instead of ne ... pas. Here ne...plus focuses on the change between the past situation and the new current one, which it highlights, hence Le Présent.
Tu ne bois plus d'alcool depuis cinq ans.You haven't drunk alcohol for five years.Je ne fume plus depuis 1998.I haven't smoked since 1998.I am confused about these examples. I understand the structure and they seem to be more or less interchangeable, but I want to understand the difference. The qualifier makes sense, to indicate that the action has now stopped, but the examples don't seem to illustrate that.
How do those English sentences indicate that an action has now stopped occurring? "I haven't drunk alcohol for five years" -- termination began five years ago when I stopped drinking. Does it mean that the term of the five years has just completed?
But then, if so, with "je ne fume plus depuis 1998," we don't even have a defined term, it's that year to the assumed present and the stopping smoking happened in 1998.
I really want to understand so thanks in advance for any clarification!
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