French language Q&A Forum

Your pronunciation of Saoul sounds to me like soo in English, with no "a" sound.

It seems that with some adverbs formed by adding -ment to the feminine adjective form the "middle e" is pronounced and others not (example: lentement (not pronounce) and fortement (pronounced). Am I hearing this correctly? If so, is there a rule when to pronounce and when not to?

Thanks!

Why is "He's thinking of her" - Il pense à elle instead of Il lui pense?

If someone were to ask the question "Pense-il a Marie?" Would the answer be "Oui, il lui pense."  

Not the prime purpose of the lesson - but in the examples, why is 'you have been lying' the English translation of «tu as menti» (passé composé) rather than tu mentais (imparfait)? If the English translation was  'you lied' I would understand, as that implies an episode that is finished, but in English 'you have been lying' leaves open ' for a long time' and 'and you still are' scenarios - that is the sense that it could be ongoing and it is unclear when it started. The translation has me questioning (again) what further I need to understand to grasp the nuances of this past tense distinction.

I would have expected 'un conte' to be a 'short story'. I was under the impression that 'Une nouvelle' tends to be a long short story. Thus 'Bel-Ami' is a 'roman', 'Boule de Suif' is a 'nouvelle' but 'Une Vendetta' is a 'conte'. What do you think/?

Would this be incorrect: "On n'a vingt ans qu'une fois" ?

Is there a quick way to see and hear the difference in vowels and the same vowels accented?

This is a very academic point. The translation for "Ils redoutent qu'elle ne revienne" is given as "They dread she might come back". In French, they dread that she will return. In the given English translation, even the possibility that she will come back is a cause for dread. I know that, in common speech, the distinction might never be made, but shouldn't the equivalent sentences be as follows?

 "Ils redoutent qu'elle ne revienne." = "They dread she will come back."

 "Ils redoutent qu'elle ne puisse revenir." = "They dread she might come back."

Hello kwiziq team, I have a short question as follows: am sure I hear the voice saying "je bois le bon tisane devant...", instead of what the text says: "je bois une bonne tisane devant..." - Could you please let me know, if this is because of me simply not getting the right sound? The word tisane should be (f) - Thanks for coming back!