French language Q&A Forum

In terms of translating into French, it seems that the two phrases above are equivalent in meaning. All the examples use a construction in English that is correct but not necessarily how people would say it. It would be quite normal and grammatically correct to say the simpler phrase, "I just ate my breakfast." Would someone ever use the passe compose in the "venir de + infinitive", and if so, what does it mean in English? I expect that the venir in the pluperfect + infinitive would mean "I HAD just [done something]."

If the answer was "roman policier" shouldn't the question have been "police novel" rather than "detective story" ?

My comment relates to English rather than French usage in that I think some non-native English speakers may be confused by the sentence in the second example you give. "Sarah didn't use to trust Thomas" The past participle of "to use" in this case is "used " not "use" although it may be that common America English practice may differ. You could employ "use" to say that "I didn't use the books you suggested" but you would need "used" in front of an infinitive such as "I used to live in London" or "I used to trust you". I refer you to Fowler's Modern English Usage 2nd Ed. p670 where it is pointed out that the modern expression "he used to" replaces an arcane "he uses to". Just to point out that English can be just as exacting as French. Cordialement. K

I naively thought that, given that all reflexive verbs take être as their auxiliary, they would always agree in gender and number when requiring a past participle. Is there any simple method I can apply to identify the exceptions to the rule

Can the Le Passe compose be used in formal writing. If not, then which tense is it replaced with?

Mon text est en anglais.  Je veux le voir en français.  Comme je fais ça?  Merci