un peu

jennifer A.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

un peu

I thought 'un peu' (as in the text above) is followed by 'de'...

Je parle un peu d'anglais avec lui.

jennifer

This question relates to:French writing exercise "My cousin Benjamin"

Freeform Writing Exercise A1

Asked 5 years ago

Like0Answer2

CécileKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Hi Jennifer,

You can say both -

Je parle un peu d'anglais avec lui = I speak a bit of English with him

and

Je parle un peu anglais avec lui = I speak English for a bit with him

Very subtle...

Like15 years ago

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

You can say, e.g., Je voudrais un peu de vin, svp. -- I would like a bit of the wine, please. So there is a larger quantity of wine of which you take some. This doesn't work with speaking English. There is no larger quantity of English to partake from. Hence the construction: Je parle un peu l'anglais avec lui.

Like05 years ago

jennifer A. asked: