French language Q&A Forum

I think that "Your flat pleases us greatly" is just as good as "We like your flat a lot."  It's probably a little better translation because it tracks almost literally word for word with the French.  (Just as in "Su apartamento nos gusta mucho" could and would be acceptably rendered in either English translation, with no disagreement of substance.)

"I really need you to find out the reason why it's not working anymore,"

Regarding the above please explain why the imperfect tense is used for the verb trouver (trouviez), I would have thought that either the present tense (trouvez) ... "you find out"

or the future tense (trouverez) ... "you will find out"

would correctly translate from the English text? 

Thank you.

Can I write "Je les tiens précieusement" instead?

If one wants to say "a big storm" should it be "une grosse tempête," "une grande tempête" or is either one acceptable?

I actually had two questions. One was the same as that of Alvine. I thought that the description of past feelings required the imparfait?

My second question is the use of « avec moi » and not « chez moi ». Couldn’t either one be correct? I suppose that « avec moi » indicates that she was staying specifically with and for him, but just wondered if « chez moi » could not have the same connotation?

Thank you!

Mm

It's more obvious when we're talking about a positive sentence like:

But when it is negative:

ni l'un ni l'autre = pas l'un et pas l'autre => so it can be plural no? 

Multiple sources suggest both singular and plural verb forms are possible for ni l'un ni l'autre:

http://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=1490#:~:text=Lorsque%20le%20sujet%20est%20ni,deux%20noms%20coordonn%C3%A9s%2C%20est%20pluriel.

https://www.gymglish.com/fr/frantastique-orthographe/regles-orthographe/ni-lun-ni-lautre-nanont-raison

https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/clefsfp/index-fra.html?lang=fra&lettr=indx_catlog_n&page=9WmCJCDuX_J0.html

In 'New in Town', for the line: 'It shouldn't be too hard to make new friends', there were a number of possible responses given as correct. My question relates to the following 2 possible options: 1. Ça ne devrait pas être trop difficile de ME faire de nouveaux amis, and 2. Ça ne devrait pas être trop difficile de SE faire de nouveaux amis (my emphasis).  I have not been able to find an explanation as to why one has a choice as to whether one makes the reflexive pronoun agree with the subject in the options given. This is an aspect of French that I have never been completely sure about.  Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Kwizik should be more tolerant of "minor" spelling mistakes. Writing "... cause de bruit" instead of " ... cause du bruit" does not mean I don't understand the grammar point! 

A little bit of confusion here 

Here you can see that if is followed by a verb in the Simple Past (won), 

As a simple Englishman, I translate that as passé simple which is clearly not what is meant

From the lesson «When talking about two actions that happen simultaneously, you will use : 

en + Participe présent / Gérondif»; can you not also use imparfait and passé composé eg Je courait quand j'ai rencontré Mathilde ?  I am not suggesting the same meaning or English translation, but the sentence still describes the simultaneous occurrence of events, that could also be described using le gérondif. If that is correct, the quote from the lesson should replace 'will use' with 'can use' (and preferably reference the lesson on passé composé and imparfait being used together as another). If there are reasons to choose one over the other, worth noting as well.