French language Q&A Forum

I don’t get why “C’est le fils de Martha” translates to “He is Martha’s son.” 

Well, I should probably restate that: I read the lesson, so I know what the rule is, but I don’t understand the logic behind it. 

In English, using “c’est” would never make sense because “Il” means “he.” Thus, it would always be “Il est le fils de Martha.” 

How would the sentence need to be phrased so that “il est” would be correctly used (instead of c’est)? Or is this not possible (because an article will always be used)? 

In this case, you wouldn’t be referencing an “it,” but an actual (specific) person instead. Something like: 

1. Qui est Roger? / Il est le fil de Martha. (The example with Sylvie contradicts this because it also uses c’est.)

or

2. Qui est le garçon? / Il est le fil de Martha (because il is referring to a specific boy) 

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks in advance! 😊

Why is T’ not accepted as a replacement for Tu, when it’s T’as and Tu as.

1) Introduction uses "de la laine" for wool, but when used the answer uses "de laine." The intro is not consistent with the lesson.

2) hint "chapeau" = winter hat, answer uses bonnet and marks chapeau wrong.

I understand that you are trying to have us become familiar with native speakers, but this is A1, and my goodness, either my hearing is horrendous, or the pronunciation of some words is just very poor. I cannot find any source that pronounces "met" anywhere close to that presented in the sentence "je mets mon gros pull préféré." Also, what's up with the pause before the last syllable of "déteste" in the sentence "mais je déteste le froid" ? 

Becherelle (2006) says to conjugate gémir as you would finir, interestingly, nothing looks like geignait there ... I assume I haven't got to the lesson that explains this. 

"j'ai acheté un sac à dos qui est très à la mode en ce moment, et j'ai pris un nouveau stylo-plume et beaucoup de cartouches d'encre." 

Why isn't neuf used here? Nobody, generally, buys a used object when going back to school.

"j'ai acheté un sac à dos qui est très à la mode en ce moment, et j'ai pris un nouveau stylo-plume et beaucoup de cartouches d'encre." 

Why isn't neuf used here? Nobody, generally, buys a used object when going back to school.

What are the 21 common ir verbs that Linda speaks about in the lesson/topic of regular  ir verbs?

Thank you

Joe McHugh

Eight years ago Meike asked about this and there was no good answer.  I’m confused about the same thing.  The lesson doesn’t discuss using ou when the clause contains the future tense.