French language Q&A Forum

I entered this (il ferait du soleil) instead of the answer Kwiziq wanted (il ferait beau). Doesn't il ferait du soleil work as well?

I think since 1990 and the contentious spelling reforms, there are now two acceptable ways to spell “onion” in French. I think the Academy even prefers “ognon” to be used over “oignon”. In the same way that you now allow “s’il vous plait” without the circumflex as well as “s’il vous plaît”, maybe you should add the new spelling of onion as an acceptable option? 

1. Ce sont de longues jupes nouvelles.    2. Ce sont des jupes longues et nouvelles.   3.  Ce sont de longues jupes nouvelles.   4. Ce sont de longues et nouvelles jupes.   Which one is the correct sentence? Please clarify.  Thanks in advance. 

Can you explain grammatically the construction if this phrase?  I get that it means "we got home from school", but it seems unnecessarily complicated.  Could you not say "nous étions retourné de l'école"?

brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hey everyone, 

I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but  I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she

she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed. 

Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc. 

The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of  ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?

What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French?  (That aren’t so obvious.)

Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻

" No you cannot say , 'le jour suivant le mariage' you could say, ' le jour après le mariage' but ' le lendemain du mariage' is even better... "

I have 2 questions about this answer:

Q1) Compare the example "Il a été relâché le jour suivant son arrestation." with "Il s'est réveillé le jour suivant le mariage". Do these both not follow the same pattern of the day following+[something]. What is it about the latter that is wrong?

Q2) Cécile has indicated we could say le jour après le mariage but in the lesson we can read "You cannot say le jour après in French." So which is it?

Bonjour!

Could you please explain that sentense: c'est la preuve que nous sommes donc tout autre que les spotifs? I don't understand when we can use 'donc' in the sentense.

Merci!

In the exercise:

“the one which ran along the stream up to her favourite clearing.”

translates to:

“celui qui longeait le ruisseau jusqu'à sa petite clairière favorite.”

Is the use of ‘petite’ in order to indicate affection for the clearing, thereby emphasising that it is a ‘favourite’ place? I’m wondering how to interpret it, as the English doesn’t contain the adjective ‘little’ or ‘small’.