Devoir (and its discontents)After I had had to do my homework, I went for a walk.Really? No native English speaker would ever say this. One might say "After I did my homework, I went for a walk" but that doesn't mean what I think the question writer is after.
Having had to do something is a state of being, not something after which one takes a walk. Consider a work around to what is said: "After being in a position where I was required to do my homework, I took a walk." Weird, awkward, unidiomatic, and just strange. If this question was written by a native English speaker, it was surely in pursuit of teaching the plupurfect of devoir, which I never hear in conversation. It is something taught but in my experience never used and really never needed. Apparently, whatever exists on the conjugation chart has to be worked into a question....
When I took French in 60s, the pluperfect of devoir was translated as "must have", but I only hear the passe compose in cases where the pluperfect might have worked. Again, I never hear this said and rarely written.
Anyway you look at it, devoir in the past is a condition - not something that happens before something else happens. So no more is needed than the passe compose IMO.....
bonjour forum et les experts
Au sujet de la phrase suivante 'je devrais être en train de boire un expresso en (à une) terrasse
je comprends bien la phrase, mais je demande pour quoi on ne peux pas l'écrire avec un 'sur' en place d'un à ou un en. N'est-ce pas aussi correct, 'je devrais être en train de boire un expresso sur une terrasse'?
Note also that you use qu'est-ce que if it appears at the start but quoi at the end.
:: This sentence is a little confusing, do you think this is more clear
Note;
you start a question with "qu'est-ce que"; in order words, "qu'est-ce que" only appears at the start of a question. However, you end a question with "quoi"; in order words, "quoi" only appears at appears at the end of a question.
Example
Qu'est-ce que tu fais?
Notice how the sentence starts with "qu'est-ce que"
Tu fais quoi?
Notice how the sentence ends with "quoi"
"Je pense que les gens qui considerent ce jeu puerile..." The speaker, the "gens" and the game are all masculine, so why is puerile in the feminine form? Should it not be pueril?
I was just going through the listening practice liked to below. The first sentence is:
Les soldes d'hiver de cette année se sont révélée.
And the word soldes doesn't sound right to me. Is it just me?
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/my-languages/french/exercises/overview/408
que les enfants ont-ils fait?
does it work like that
Really? No native English speaker would ever say this. One might say "After I did my homework, I went for a walk" but that doesn't mean what I think the question writer is after.
Having had to do something is a state of being, not something after which one takes a walk. Consider a work around to what is said: "After being in a position where I was required to do my homework, I took a walk." Weird, awkward, unidiomatic, and just strange. If this question was written by a native English speaker, it was surely in pursuit of teaching the plupurfect of devoir, which I never hear in conversation. It is something taught but in my experience never used and really never needed. Apparently, whatever exists on the conjugation chart has to be worked into a question....
When I took French in 60s, the pluperfect of devoir was translated as "must have", but I only hear the passe compose in cases where the pluperfect might have worked. Again, I never hear this said and rarely written.
Anyway you look at it, devoir in the past is a condition - not something that happens before something else happens. So no more is needed than the passe compose IMO.....
Salut -
In the kwiziq glossary entry for Verbes aux deux auxiliares, it mentions that demeurer follows "the reverse pattern" to the transitive/intransitive rule.
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/glossary/verb-conjugation-group/verbs-that-can-take-avoir-or-etre-as-auxiliary
I have used that as my rule of thumb for a while now, and it was always confusing to me (as a verbe d'état, it is intransitive, yet takes auxiliary « être », so that note didn't feel right).
I just found the comments and explanations here on this page, and all is now clear - thank you Aurélie and other contributors for the information you have shared here!
It might be worth correcting that glossary page entry, too, in case others stumble across it in the future.
I recently did the lesson on "avoir envie de" (Avoir envie de = To feel like, want to (French Expressions with avoir)%252Fsearch%253Fs%253Denvie), which includes as an example "J'ai envie d'aller aux toilettes". I used this phrase in this exercise and was marked wrong. Was it correct? Are there any guidelines for which "need" phrase is most appropriate for a given situation?
You explain that following au cas où, you would be tempted to use the subjunctive, but must use the conditional, but you do not say why?
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