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29 questions • 32,088 answers • 986,249 learners
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
29 questions • 32,088 answers • 986,249 learners
Hi, Can you please help me with this?________ une clé. (I have found only one key.) Why "Je n'ai que trouvé" is not accepted as a correct answer? But Only "Je n'ai trouvé qu'" and "J'ai trouvé seulement" are correct. I checked the theory but I think "Je n'ai que trouvé" is also correct.
Alexandre is a proper noun, so shortening it to "qu'Alexandre" is optional and not necessary. Yet I got marked wrong for writing "n'a embrassé que Alexandre"
I don’t know why my answer wouldn’t be qu’ in this instance, rather than the unshortened que. I’d appreciate guidance.
For the question "Je suis resté cinq jours à Mykonos, mais ________ à Paris", I was marked incorrect for answering "je ne suis que resté trois jours". The accepted answer was "je ne suis resté que trois jours". How does placing "que" before or after "resté" change the emphasis or meaning of this statement? "But I stayed only three days in Paris" vs "But I only stayed three days in Paris". I cannot see the distinction that makes one form wrong and the other right.
For a change of pace I decided to use seulement instead of ne...que for the following sentence:
"J'ai eu deux chats." . Write "I had only two cats.": ________ deux chats. My answer J'ai au seulement deux chats... was marked wrong! I understand Chris' response to another use that the focus of the exercise in ne que..but in many of the tests (choose ALL the correct answers) they had both the 'seulement' version and the 'ne que' version as GOOD answers.
Unless my answer has an error which I am overlooking ,or there is a point of grammar why seulement is unacceptable here, I would like to suggest a revision of the test marking to accept seulement.
There may be sound reason why learning to use seulement is beneficial, even if 'ne que' is considered better in formal writing. Based on further reading, I have found that SEULEMENT ALSO can VARY IN PLACEMENT ..to differently focus the restriction. Rules for seulement: Cannot be placed BEFORE the conjugated auxiliary/ does not have to be placed (unlike many adverbs) IMMEDIEATELY after the conjugated verb/can be placed just like the 'que' before the 'target word ' being restricted.
So it seems : I had ONLY two cats= je n'ai eu que deux chats OR J'ai eu seulement deux chats.
I ONLY had two cats == Je n'ai qu'eu deux chats or J'ai seulement eu deux chats.
As usual I stand ready to be corrected!
I've heard this as a song title, but all of the examples above are sentences with auxiliary verbs, so is this correct French?
Since "que" is in front of "un", it means "I bought only one bike" (not two). If I want to say "I bought only a bike." (meaning I bought a bike and nothing else), can you say "Je n'ai acheté un que vélo?
What is wrong with in question 4 answering "seulement" - it sound perfectly idiomatic.
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