French language Q&A Forum

Q:''Tom et Paula se sont embrassés devant le miroir.'' can mean:

1.Tom and Paula kissed each other in front of the mirror.

2.Tom and Paula kissed themselves in front of the mirror.

The first correct answer is the normal one, which fits the French sentence. The second one is technically correct, but the only google results of this example that I've found were linguistic works discussing how weird it was. I've asked some English native speakers (who are also familiar with French at various levels), and it is really weird. As a C2 French speaker, I also find this weird, I have never encountered the second meaning. Should we really interpret that sentence also as "Tom was kissing his own hand in front of the mirror and Paula was kissing her own hand in front of the mirror"? In an exercise on the reciprocity expressed by the reflexive verbs?

Wasn't the original intention rather to put there both "Tom and Paula kissed each other in front of the mirror." and "Tom and Paula kissed in front of the mirror"? That would illustrate perfectly the issue at hand, that the reflexive pronoun is used in French and not in the English translation.

Chris if you're still there can  you help with this please? You said 

Il se demandait si elle viendrait. -- He wondered whether she’d come. (Indirect speech)

Je me demande qu’elle vienne. -- I wonder whether she’s coming. (Direct speech)

But the lesson says

"je me demande si tu vas venir ou pas.

Bonjour,

A quoi sert le « quoi » à la fin du quatrième paragraphe ?

Je vous remercie. 

Diane

Why dont we say that "J'ai entendu tout" like "Je comprends tout" but "J'ai tout entendu"?

Is "etait donne" (with accents) definitely correct here? it's not "etant donne"? thanks