French language Q&A Forum

I was doing an exercise about what in subject, the phrase was: Jacques est descendu du haricot magique". I translated it as "Jack climbed down the magic beanstalk" and the system told me that the correct answer was "Jack got off the magic beanstalk". Why?

As near as I can tell, no transitive usage of DESCENDRE is followed by a preposition, and whenever descendre does take a preposition, it's an intransitive verb. This doesn't tell which of the many meanings of DESCENDRE obtain, but it does seem a reasonable heuristic device. Your thoughts....?

Hi,

I have read the below but it's still not clear to me. What is the difference between:

J'ai descendu les escaliers...

Je suis descendu du train...

Hi Aurélie

I was doing an exercise which has this question:

La valise qu'il ( est descendue, a descendue, a descendu) du grenier hier est neuve.

What will be the correct answer? As my understanding says intransitive verbs take être as auxillary but the answer given is a descendue ( why the accord?)

Hi, I just came across this on a test and I wrote that it could mean Jack descended on the giant (as opposed to the stairs ) and this was marked incorrect but in the explanation it states that they descended the stairs requires avoir as the auxillary verb so I cannot see why descending on the giant is any different? They both have a direct object.

I am a bit confused about this. Thanks

I do understand the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, but for this  English speaker there seems to a real difference between "tu as descendu le cadeau" or  "j’ai descendu les boîtes" versus "j’ai descendu les escaliers". You don’t "do" anything (like carrying it down or getting it down) to the staircase/ladder/beanstalk! I’m not sure if the French view the two situations identically or whether it’s just idiomatic to descend something with steps or rungs using the transitive form ?

These sentences are so similar that I don't understand why one uses "avoir" and the the other "etre." Don't they both have a direct object? "He walked down (the boulevard)", and "she went up (the hill)". I'm missing something!

Il ________ descendu le boulevard St Michel.

Elle ______ montee la colline.

"Jacques est descendu du haricot magique." was translated to: "Jack got off the magic beanstalk." I answered, "Jack climbed down the beanstalk" and it was marked wrong. Larousse clearly states that "descendre de" (using etre as the auxiliary verb) means "climb or climb down". Hence, my confusion.

Why is this avoir? I appreciate the verb is followed by a noun but its no different to getting off a plane, in real terms. I seem to be finding this matter unusually difficult