Passer vs. se passer -- partie deux

Rebecca L.C1Kwiziq community member

Passer vs. se passer -- partie deux

Today, I got the same question: "Sarah ________ la salade à Michel," but this time the answer was "passe," with no reflexive pronoun!

 

The same question can NOT have different answers.  Please explain, this is driving me crazy!

Asked 7 months ago
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

I don't know about the other question, but here are the uses of passer and se passer in this sentence:

Sarah se passe de la salade. -- Sarah does without the salad.
Sarah passe la salade à Michel. -- Sarah passes the salad to Michel.

The second sentence would be incorrect and nonsensical with the reflexive pronoun.

CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Rebecca, 

I have had a look at the quiz question but cannot find an error in it and the only possible answer is -

passe 

à Michel determines this choice.

The verb is to pass something to someone

Sarah passe la salade à Michel
Jean-Jacques passe le sel à Simone

The use of 'se passer'  doesn't make any sense in that sentence as it means 'to happen', 'to take place', and  'se passer de' as Chris says is to go without something ( to give something a miss).

Alan's understanding of your error is interesting and might shed some light on it.

I hope this helps you. In these multiple-choice quizzes, there can only be normally one correct answer.

Bonne Continuation !

 

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I think I can tell you exactly what happened, because I've had the same experience many times.

There is only one correct answer: "passe". The first time, you thought you had put "passe" but in fact you accidentally put "se passe". When you saw that you'd got the question wrong you misread the results and assumed that the correct answer must be "se passe", because you were sure that you had put "passe". You don't understand it, but next time the question comes up you put "se passe" anyway, because you remember you'd got it wrong last time, so you end up getting it wrong again.

Passer vs. se passer -- partie deux

Today, I got the same question: "Sarah ________ la salade à Michel," but this time the answer was "passe," with no reflexive pronoun!

 

The same question can NOT have different answers.  Please explain, this is driving me crazy!

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