French language Q&A Forum

I prefer to listen to speakers with expression. It helps to understand the meaning (although I realize this wasn't a dictée)

When I buy cat food for my (many) cats, many of the products are translated into French. What I have seen written by manufacturers almost exclusively for dry cat food  is “nourriture sèche pour chats.” That said, what I think you’re trying to teach us is the more colloquial term, as the English might say “crunchies” and we Americans might say “kibble;” hence, “les croquettes.” Am I correct in that neither is wrong?  (FYI, I am checking with two friends of mine who live in France who are cat breeders. I am curious to see what they say.)

Le soir, la ville se réveillée.

Le soir, la ville se réveillait.

This is in the context of a visit to this city, which came alive in the evening. Until then the shops were closed and the streets empty. The text book answer was NOT in the imparfait. What is the rationale applied here?

...“et de lui acheter”. It seems to function like “et en lui acheter”, but for some reason “de” is the correct choice here. 

Bonjour, 

I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below.  However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal.  More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).

The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity).  One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ".  To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite.  I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)

Love Lawless French, by the way,

Alice

This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"

Bonjour,

Was wondering about the word frais since it means fresh. I thought that fresh fruit would be similar to saying l'enfant est frais. Or would I be wrong in my following examples. 

Le fruit est frais

The fruit is fresh

L'enfant est frais

Can I also say

Le frais Enfant

The fresh kid

Thanks

Nicole

Bonjour!

I think that the bolds to the above paragraphe on conjugation is a bit tricky. I am corying it below

je me / m' 

tu te / t'

il, elle, on se / s'                          + verb conjugated in the right form

nous nous

vous vous

ils, elles se / s

"Je, il, elle, on" must not be in bold. Because they are bold I thought that I could use them in the reflexive form.

Merci