Unexpected position for “leur”Hi, with regard to:
“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”
Half of the answers are of the type:
“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”
This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times.
The other half are of the type:
“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”
This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?
Could anyone explain the use of 'nous' in the second example but not in the first. I would see the constructions as similar.
Is the use of 'nous' in these cases optional?
Thanks guys
The first sentence, "il faut vraiment que l'on discute de ta mère" is the contraction l'on for "le" or "la" ? I still don't get why it is even needed. Would it not work to say, "...qu'on disute de ta mère" which then maps to English as "that we discuss about your mother".
I'm guessing that it's a direct object pronoun, but then why isn't "de ta mére" the object of the sentence?
Hi, with regard to:
“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”
Half of the answers are of the type:
“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”
This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times.
The other half are of the type:
“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”
This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?
This sentence ending with “où” to me sounds unfinished. Is this considered informal speech? I feel like “où” is serving as a conjunction here… Is this a fixed phrase? Like the rest of the sentence is implied or used to be stated and now it dropped? For example, something like “…au cas où (il me faudrait)”
Why is this marcher and not aller à pied since it is contrasted by another method of travel?
In one of the tests the answer included « choose one or the other. » We would normally say « Choose one or other (of them). » ‘The one’ or ‘the other’, sounds clunky even if grammatical. :)
... car le bureau de poste local n'offrait plus ce service.
In this section of the sentence the 'S' at the end of 'pluS' is pronounced. This seems at odds with the lesson 'Ne ... plus = no more/no longer' which states: -
Note that when plus has a negative meaning (no more), you don't pronounce the final 's', except when you do the liaison with a vowel following ('z' sound).
... in the exercise plus is followed by 'ce' and 'ce' does not start with a vowel and as such should not be pronounced?
Tu dois rester a la maison
Why is there Mieux not Meilleur ?
I know one is adverb and other is abjective but I think adjective should work here too
Is it "j'ai encore besoin de l'aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire !" Instead of j'ai encore besoin d' aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire!" because it is a specific dictionary that they are talking about?
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