French language Q&A Forum

Since learning a new language, especially once as inflected in different forms of pronunciation compared to English (or, say, Japanese, which I speak), involves considerable oral drilling (at least when learned in school), may I suggest that you add a recording that functions as an oral drill of new verb forms at, say,  the B2 level and above? 

For example, an oral drill of 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent. A strong-voice emphasis on practicing pronunciation would I think help enormously in achieving a correct understanding of voicing the specific forms, because while the examples sentences are good, the quality of speakers is sometimes uneven and sometimes verbs are quickly slurred into the next word, making it difficult/impossible to hear the correct pronunciation.

In the above examples, "Soudain, ils eurent l'impression d'être suivis" has "eurent" quickly sliding into "l'impression." As the pronunciation of this plural verb form is indistinct (though of course it's probably perfectly natural French in the context of the full French sentence), practicing correct pronunciation is difficult. 

So, to repeat, a stand-alone recording of something like 'e-' + endings: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent and or B2 forms would be helpful.

"La tradition veut que..." and "Puis la coutume veut que..." does the use of avoir vs être hold a special/unique translation? Or is it simply "is"?

Why not "de petits morceaux," as there's nothing to designate a specific tomato? 

And why not "la carapace" as we're talking about the same animal subject?

1. C'est une marque de voitures anglaise 

2. Nous désirons acheter une voiture d'une marque anglaise 

The What are the rules of placing marque relative to voiture and anglaise? Why is there repetition of "une" in #2 to refer to each noun (voiture/marque), when there is no such repetition in #1? I was expecting to see "Nous désirons acheter une voiture de marque anglaise" (similar to the structure in #1). Thanks for your help! Rod

Seems like going up using avoir could work here, too. It’s confusing sans greater context. No question, just a comment that some questions are too vague. 

I have often found that when they use something like "de ne pas faire ça" I have used  "de ne pas le faire". Is this incorrect usage? Or just another alternative?

Thinking that I understood the rule,I stupidly wrote "Oui c'est bon,"  and of course got it wrong. My natural inclination was to put "oui, c'est bonne." But, I veered because of the rule. Obviously, I do not understand the rule. Would you please explain it more clearly? :o)

Just commenting again :

I wasn’t phased by the speed of this dictation per say, but I missed out on a couple of words due to the liaison in spoken French and not fully understanding what was being said. If i’d thought more about the English translation i’d have got one of them. I think it’s beneficial to hear the language spoken at normal speed by a native speaker, it sharpens the ear.

Hi Aurélie,

I notice a few people have asked the same question about the sentence - Tu lui as parlé' being translated as 'You talked to her' but parlé not agreeing with a feminine ‘lui’. You have said that the past participle doesn’t agree with an indirect object pronoun, and refer people to the advanced lesson: Special cases where the past participle agrees...  However that lesson only talks about direct object pronouns and doesn’t actually say that the past participle doesn’t agree with an indirect object pronouns. I wondered if - for completeness and clarity - you could add that to the lesson, if it is not covered elsewhere. Many thanks. 

I believe that "Elles sont" should be used here because we are talking about specific tomatoes. Yet "Ce sont" is correct here - why?