French language Q&A Forum

Est-ce qu'on peut utiliser le voisinage au lieu de quartier dans ce contexte ? 

One of the quiz questions: Nous ________ une fois par mois. We have money wired once a month. HINT: virer de l'argent = to wire money

The answer is listed as "Nous faisons virer de l'argent une fois par mois." Could it also be "Nous faisions virer de l'argent une fois par mois," since it's a repetitive action? 

The given translation of « Mes sœurs ne font guère les magasins » is "My sisters hardly go shopping". This is not idiomatic in English; you would say "My sisters hardly ever go shopping". In English, we would use "hardly" on its own to imply some limitation in the action; for example, "He can hardly write (because he is only 4 years old)". But if the limitation is to do with time, then the correct expression is "hardly ever"; for example, "He hardly ever writes (because he's busy doing other things)".

I think in the article on ne ... guère, this distinction should be made. As it stands, "hardly ever" isn't mentioned at all.

How would this distinction be made in French?

Why is "I really feel like an ice cream !" "J'ai vraiment envie d'une glace !" in the past tense? Isn't the statement in the present tense as it is happening now?

When I get an exercise starting with "Quand j'étais petit" I always think of the song by the same name by Ultra Vomit, a French comedy-metal band. I didn't even know comedy-metal was a genre before I heard them!

The lesson seems to indicate that this separation is  'allowed' but 'irregular'.

 However it seems frequent and intrinsic enough in some translations to deserve identifying and defining as a rule of syntax.

If the 'possession' is the 'object' of the verb in the following clause then it is separated from dont and put after the verb in that clause. 'Dont' here is like a relative pronoun joining two clauses. All the examples support this  observation.

Tu as jeté la chaussure dont le talon est cassé.You threw away the shoe with the broken heel [lit. whose heel is broken]

BUT???Tu as jeté la chaussure chère dont  j'ai cassé  le talon.

Les enfants, dont je connais la maman, sont bien élevés.
François, dont j'ai rencontré la femme le mois dernier