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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,824 questions • 32,128 answers • 990,018 learners
I’ve always thought that in a negation the preposition ‘de’ is used, so in « I don’t waste water » I wrote « je ne gaspille pas d’eau » but this was corrected to « je ne gaspille pas l’eau ». My thought pattern was supported in « when I can’t cycle » - « quand je ne peux pas faire de vélo » (given that : to cycle = faire du vélo). Can this be explained ?
I am a little unclear as to what the definition of Indirect Speech is especially as it applies to the examples given in the lesson and in the use of verbs such as, 'se demander' and 'savoir'.
How is this Indirect Speech:
Je me demande si tu viens ou pas. ?
What I do understand is that in cases where 'whether = if', then 'si + Mode Indicatif' is applied.
The way I usually work it out in my mind is if the sentence is expressing the idea of 'regardless of which' or 'whether or not' than 'Que + Le Subjunctif' is used.
For the verbs that go in the middle of compound verbs, is that always the case? I can't say "j'ai mangé beaucoup "?
'Vite' sounds strange to me in that position--"j'ai vite couru". Even Google Translate used "couru vite", although it's certainly not the final arbiter of good French :P
I'm also having a hard time finding an example with bientôt. Maybe "je vais bientôt arriver"? That's another one I would intuitively reverse--"je vais arriver bientôt ".
Why is "almost identical" translated simply as "identique", rather than "presque indentique"?
I learned French in the sixties and seventies and use it daily. Is it still OK to say
In the quiz there's a sentence that reads:
Christophe finissait son déjeuner quand les autres sont arrivés.
The English translation says
Christopher was finishing his breakfast when the others arrived.
The quiz says déjeuner not petit-déjeuner.
Dans cette phrase une prononciation d'un mot recoudre [ʀ(ə)kudʀ] est [ vɔ kudʀ]
Corrigez-la
I have found it useful to translate rappeler as 'recall'. It's synonymous with remind, but its English language grammar is more similar to rappeler- you recall x to someone , you remind x of someone - and rappeler surely has a root in appeler, to call, re-appeler, recall. Helpful?
J'aime quand vous riez... I like it when you laugh.
Why is this not je l'aime quand vous riez
I am puzzled that the correct way of expressing leaving work uses laisser rather than quitter, both of which require direct objects. Where travail is the direct object, why is "J'ai quitté le travail" marked incorrect in the quiz and "J'ai laissé le travail" marked correct? I do not dispute that "J'ai laissé le travail" is correct, but the lesson on partir, quitter, laisser, etc. is unclear. This is especially true if "travail" is considered a place and quitter is used for leaving places, which to me at least seems plausible. I have not yet taken this up with my French coterie.
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