Enthusiastic support for the passé simple.Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.
That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp ! Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)
I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !
Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.
That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.
In any case:
Great site! Many thanks!
Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.
That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp ! Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)
I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !
Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.
That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.
In any case:
Great site! Many thanks!
In English there is a strong feeling to want to say “the period”. Below, the definite article is missing, so it’s just “période”. Is this just the way it is in French?
“se levait et se couchait en même temps que le Soleil du vingt-deux juillet au vingt-trois août, période pendant laquelle apparaissaient les fortes chaleurs.”
Hello,
I came across this quiz: "Je regarde de belles collines." which confuses me a lot when choosing the answer. Because if taken out of the context of this specific lesson, I personally can't tell whether it's:
1. "I'm looking at some (des) beautiful hills"
2. "I'm looking from (de) these (les) beautiful hills " which I think also makes sense.
The answers available are:
a) "I'm looking at beautiful hills." (correct answer)
b) "I'm watching from beautiful hills."
Can I ask why a) is correct and b) is not? Is it because "regarder de" doesn't mean "watching from"? If this is the case, what happens if it's another verb + de (in french) that means verb + from (in english)? Better yet, how can I actually say option b) in french?
I hope my question makes sense.
This may have been touched on already:
Je ne comprends pas le temps que ça lui prend de se préparer !
…is cited as an example of when it’s not appropriate to use the subjunctive.. Fair enough, but why is it also included amongst those examples that do use the subjunctive? Is that an error or am I missing something?
I was not able to understand which verb is used in this sentence for the imperative?
Pourquoi "il avait répété dans sa tête" et pas "il avait répété dans la tête"?
Pouquoi ne pas utiliser " Savez que vous êtes loin d'etre le seul au lieu de "Sachez que vous êtes loin d'être le seul"? L'utilisation du subjonctif est-elle nécessaire ?
Kevin
Re:
Le temps des deux parties m'a confuse dans cette phrase.
Il y a un exemple ou on utiliserait le subjonctif passe comme ca:
Should it not be: "et je vais souvent promenader dans le jardin."
rather than: "et je fais souvent des promenades dans le jardin." given as correct?
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