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!
"Elle veut que tu fasses la grasse matinée demain matin."
In this example, "Il a acheté deux burritos, mais il n'a mangé ni l'un ni l'autre", would it be equally correct to add "en": "Il a acheté deux burritos, mais il n'en a mangé ni l'un ni l'autre"? And why isn't it necessary anyway?
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!
Every once in a while someone asks about punctuation. I try to be a stickler on punctuation in English and must admit I don't understand the punctuation used in Kwiziq. For example, why is there a comma in the sentence beginning Sa beauté and not in the sentence beginning with La reine? And, also, shouldn't it be: Il était, une fois dans une contrée lointaine, une ....?
To stay at a hotel should be dormir à l'hôtel.
What is the meaning of:
S.M.C.?
when referring to the Duc d'Orleans
The following answer is given as correct: 'J'ai eu peur que nous soyons arrivés trop tard'.
My question is: given its 'negative ' sentiment shouldn't the answer include the 'ne expletif'?
Petite question. Je n’ai rien trouvé concernant un doute que j’ai où le sujet dont on parle s’agit de plusieurs noms et avec quel mot on doit faire l’accord.
Exemple: La liste des mots que j’ai apprise.
Dans ce cas, je n’ai pas appris la liste donc il me semble étrange de faire l’accord avec « la liste » meme si c’est le sujet. Quelle est la règle?J'ai choisi créer pour "made up" mais il ne marchait pas. À sa place, vous avez proposé "inventer." Dans la deuxième instance, j'ai utilisé "inventer ". Vous avez fait la correction, "créer ". Je pense que tous les deux devraient être acceptable dans chaque traduction. Make up, imagine, create sont des synonymes dans le contexte de cette histiore. L'histoire était mignon comme d'habitude. Félicitations !
Why in "tu" form the conjugation changes "Regarde-lui", but not "Regardes-lui"?
Whereas in "nous" the ending is the same "Arretons-lui"
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