French language Q&A Forum

C'était tout ce à quoi je m'intéressais.

Why à quoi? Why not auquel since it's s'intéresser à [qch] ?

Thank you!

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.

I am finding it too difficult to learn the passé simple and the subjunctive at the same time. Can I drop the passé simple for the time being?

We can't use dans for years in terms of dates, but can we use it for years in terms of time?

E.g.: Je vais travailler dans quatre ans. (I will be working in 4 years)

These answers are bedevilled by poor English translations. Certain, in English, means either a particular one, or that one is sure of something. There is nothing vague about it, but your definition of 'certain' in the pre-noun position you say implies a vagueness, and yet the answer to the question is keith likes a certain (particular) man - unless you mean he likes all men who are sure about things? If you could avoid using the word 'certain' in your english translations that might be helpful.

If one noun is masculine and one is feminine how do we make the agreement in gender and number?

With the first noun only or each term separately ("l'un est beau, l'autre este belle" ) ?

Are these terms interchangeable?

Why does the sentence "quatre jolies filles" have the adjective before the noun?

(I know this question is not related to the topic of this article, but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent example in the relevant article.)