Tu quittes Narbonne

Question

This question distinctly says 'you leave (from) Narbonne' . Narbonne is the port or station or airport from which your transport leaves. Such a construction 'from Narbonne' does not imply that you live there or have any other connection with it other than as ypour point of departure. Quitter seems to me entirely wrong. Unless I am mistaken, quitter implies leaving somewhere you have been for some time, for good. I also don't understand why it is used in the ' leaving work at 7pm' exercise. Thats something the subject may well do every day. Why is quitter appropriate as opposed to partir?

Accepted Answer

Hi Chris, 
Narbonne is a town in southern France, you could substitute it for Paris if it helps. If you leave (from) a place  the three correct possibilities given are -

Tu quittes Narbonne
Tu pars de Narbonne
Tu sors de Narbonne

But you couldn't use 'partir' without the de. This is why (from) has been added referring to the section in the lesson -
"- partir means to leave / to go away. You can use it on its own (e.g. I leave = Je pars).
When used with a place, it will always be followed by a preposition (e.g. I leave from / for  = Je pars de / pour)"
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi Chris,I suspect that the point here is that "quitter" is transitive with "Narbonne" being the direct object."Partir" is intransitive and does not take an object.Otherwise, if you feel strongly about it then I suggest you file an error reportHope this helps.Jim

Answer

Adding to Jim's answer noting the grammatical difference between quitter and partir (in the context of your question),

Quitter - means 'to leave' but does not have to mean for good/ever.

However, it is the only one of the 4 verbs for leaving that can also convey 'for good', so will be the only choice in that particular situation - eg to leave someone (relationship), or somewhere.

Answer

True, quitter often has a more definitive flavor of leaving something than partir does. But it can also mean to leave in a perfectly ordinary way, in which case it is a synonym of partir. The distinction lies in small things:

Je quitte mon travail. -- I quit my job.
Je quitte le travail à 6 heures. -- I leave work at 6 o'clock.

Notice that the latter gives a specific time (and also has the the definitive article "le") which makes it mean to leave instead of to quit.