Recognizing the different tensesHello, I am a total beginner at French, and I hope someone can please guide me. I am having trouble recognising the different tenses when reading a sentence in French. In English we would say : "He READS a book" as an answer to a question like "what does he do whilst taking the tube?".
If the question was "what is he doing?", In English we would say "He is READING/ a/ this/that". How do I tell whether the person is DOING something or DOES something in French? Example :
"Elle lit un livre" She reads a book.
"Elle lit un livre" she's reading a book.
Initially, I thought you'd have to read the rest of the sentence to work it out, but I can't imagine this is how it works all the time. In English there is a distinctive difference : "I go to the .../I AM going to the..."
"He has a.../He HAD a..."
"I watch .../ I AM watching".
Have I missed something in the lessons?
Apologies for the long winded question and capitalisation. I like to believe I am fluent in English (it's the only language I know) however I find articulating in my own language difficult at the best of times !!
Thanks
I have seen that the verb retourner is used with "Y
Nous y retournons demain.
We go back there tomorrow
"Il n'a pas pu retourner de la guerre.
He couldn't return from the war.
Can I say
il n'en a pas pu retourner
He couldn't return from there
Does it work like that?
en ce moment, il neige dans ma petite ville et une croisière sur la Seine, en été, semble très agréable.
For: The girls have just left can I use Les fils viennent de partir AND Les fils viennent de partir.
A bit confused.. just taken a test and this question..
Write "I am in front of the school." : "Je suis ________ l'école."
I used “en face de” which is marked as incorrect. Devant certainly works but why is en face de wrong? Linguee is happy with it!
How could I say "I can go a day without you" (for example) using the same "se passer de"? I know we can say "Je peux me passer de toi pendant un jour" but could I eliminate the "pendant" and say something along the lines of "Je peux me passer de toi un jour" or "Je peux me passer un jour de toi" (but here you have to split them)?
If not, what would be the correct way to say it? Maybe "pendant" still has to be there in cases such as these?
When I used , it was marked out in favor of , which I never hear i conversation. However, at the end of the exercise, I see enlever used when the text is played back. Looks like an oversight or self-contradiction you can easily repair.
Hello, I am a total beginner at French, and I hope someone can please guide me. I am having trouble recognising the different tenses when reading a sentence in French. In English we would say : "He READS a book" as an answer to a question like "what does he do whilst taking the tube?".
If the question was "what is he doing?", In English we would say "He is READING/ a/ this/that". How do I tell whether the person is DOING something or DOES something in French? Example :
"Elle lit un livre" She reads a book.
"Elle lit un livre" she's reading a book.
Initially, I thought you'd have to read the rest of the sentence to work it out, but I can't imagine this is how it works all the time. In English there is a distinctive difference : "I go to the .../I AM going to the..."
"He has a.../He HAD a..."
"I watch .../ I AM watching".
Have I missed something in the lessons?
Apologies for the long winded question and capitalisation. I like to believe I am fluent in English (it's the only language I know) however I find articulating in my own language difficult at the best of times !!
Thanks
now im really confused , other lessons say qui is followed bt verb not a pronoun but here its different
Presumably ‘soi-même’ can also be used for ‘itself’ ?
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