French language Q&A Forum

According to the notes, Jacques a descendu ... could mean he climbed down off the giant. I picked this answer, too, and it was wrong. Why? Thanks for your help. 

Je les ai jois (s?) que Maman a cueillie(s?)  How does it work here, where you have the fraises referenced by the les before the ai?  Do both of these need to agree?

During my Dashboard test, one of the questions was:

Nous ______  tous le mot "hypocondriaque". (We're all spelling the word "hypochondriac".)

HINT: Conjugate "épeler" (to spell) in Le Présent

Problem:  Trying to find"épeler" in the lesson page was an absolute nightmare. For the younger guys, it might be easy enough, but I'm 76.

Trying to find "épeler" didn't work, because it doesn't exist in the page.

Never mind. Marchons! Marchons!

Next, try to find the correct template for "épeler" in one of the following templates:

-é(-)er, -e(-)er, -eter, -eler, -Ê(-)ER [Note the change from lower case to upper case in the final template.]

My first attempt to find "épeler" in one of those templates stopped when I found  -e(-)er, which matches -eler

The next step was to find out how to conjugate it. I failed, because the only conjugated verb on the whole page is COMPLÉTER, which does not match the template (it matches -é(-)er).

Are we confused yet?

I followed the advice to omit any question if I was unsure about the answer.

BTW: The sharp-eyed will have noticed the template -eler actually exists near the end of my list of templates. So there are ambiguous templates.

Footnote: IMHO, there's far too much material on this page. It could be split into possibly four or five lessons. The lesson generates two questions in the micro-kwiz and 1 question in the dashboard quiz. The lesson demands at least 20 questions.

Attempts to compress the material result in statements such as:

Verbs ending in -É(-)ER such as célébrer, compléter, préférer, espérer..., as well as most verbs ending in -E(-)ER (except for -ETER and -ELER verbs) such as mener, lever, semer, élever... are semi-regular -ER verbs 

Compare with a lesson such as "Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)" which has only a fraction of the material, and is much easier to understand. Yet that lesson also generates two questions in the micro-kwiz and 1 question in the dashboard quiz.

IMHO, the presentation of "avoir envie de" in this lesson seems to be rambling and less precise than the corresponding "avoir besoin de" lesson. (They were written by the same author.)

Because of the differing presentations, it took me a couple of re-reads to realize that the construction of these expressions is actually IDENTICAL:

 - avoir besoin de + (article) + noun
 - avoir envie de + (article) + noun

and

 - avoir besoin de + infinitive
 - avoir envie de + infinitive

Note that I've replaced the unnecessary "de/d'" by the simple "de", because at this stage of a French course, I don't think anyone would ever say (or write) "J'ai besoin de un crayon". [BTW: I'm impressed by the spell checker. It flagged "de un" ! ]

The use of "parallel text" causes most Brits to prefer US courses. Although the subjects might be of equal complexity and difficulty, the Yanks use parallel text for the overhead projectors and the course notes. That seems to make the subjects seem simpler - both to learn and to remember.

BTW:  Parallel text simply means the use of identical text throughout - except for the differing key words. Look at my "besoin" and "envie" examples above. The differing key words seem to jump out of the page - as if they had been emboldened.

Thanks.

&Can you please clarify the meaning here? The translation,   Paula doesn’t think much of the environment, is a bit ambiguous (and awkward ounding).  In English this could mean (and one would more likely say) either “Paula doesn’t care much about the environment”, or “Paula doesn’t spend much time thinking about the environment.”  But of course they mean different things.  Which meaning applies here?

What is the difference between 

Il fait froid hier soir       And

Il faisait froid hier soir

The translation is identical and the lesson doesn’t clarify it. 

Has the conjugation of essayer in the present tense changed over the years?  I learned "j'essaye" ( a long time ago ).

Why "abeille" and "âne" is written with "un (une?)"? 

What is difference among "poulet" and "poule"?

Le hamster or l'hamster? İs "le hamster" right?