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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,691 questions • 31,849 answers • 967,791 learners
If we had a dog, is same as.. if we were to have a dog, which would seem to be imperfect, not passé composé. You have trained us to use imperfect in this situation: Si nous avions un chien.......
Grégoire
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I am confused.. why the “except” if those countries and continents are feminine.. if the except means they are masculine, the (all of them are feminine)” makes no sense!
I have always used imparfait for repeated events or actions in the past. However, you suggest passé composé in: "She saved up all year round" = "Elle a mis de côté..". I have found a reference that almost applies "..an action or event repeated a specific number of times" but there is no such specification here. Saving money over time seems to me to be an habitual or repeated action.
hi,
I was wondering for the mini quiz I took the question was Tom a achete une _______ maison I had put neuf but it was wrong. Wouldn't nouvelle and or neuf be used here since it doesn't specify?
thanks
nicole
Il ne faut pas de partenaire. Can one use this to mean "You don't need a partner."
Bonjour,
I think that the Futur Proche follows the rule in this lesson but I could not find any confirming examples. Can someone confirm that the following sentence is correct?
Je vais nettoyer l'appart pendant que tu seras partie.Thanks,
John
I did have to look this one up! But for anyone else who was wondering, "sans chocolat" is absolutely correct. I had thought it would be "sans le chocolat."
Why are we saying des before a noun followed by an adjective?
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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