il avait beaucoup de mal à choisir le pays

JamesC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

il avait beaucoup de mal à choisir le pays

Why can't we use "vraiment" here for "really"? and why does it contract to "de" ? I know its because of the quantity of "beaucoup" however the expression is "avoir du mal à"?

Asked 11 months ago
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Sure, use vraiment or beaucoup, it's the difference between "really" and "a lot". You're level C1 so you know how these writing exercises work and what self-grading means, right?

Regarding the other question: avoir du mal has a partitive article ("to have some difficulty"). If you want to say "a lot of difficulty" you use avoir beaucoup de mal. It isn't a fixed phrase in this respect.

il avait beaucoup de mal à choisir le pays

Why can't we use "vraiment" here for "really"? and why does it contract to "de" ? I know its because of the quantity of "beaucoup" however the expression is "avoir du mal à"?

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