French language Q&A Forum
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
13,709 questions • 29,369 answers • 835,698 learners
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
13,709 questions • 29,369 answers • 835,698 learners
Salut! Why is it not “je jouais avec Elsa pendant quelques heures..” as it is happening continuously over a period of time? Why is it passé composé in this context?
‘Moutaine’ is the word for ‘mitten’ on Google Translate. Why is ‘moufle’ the correct answer here?
This is more of a general grammar question, but I don't see how the sentence "She will get a refund." is in the same family of sentences as all the other examples. Why is it not something like "She's having [her purchase] refunded"?
in this text it said 'I explained to her', which I would have thought was 'Je lui ai expliqué' but no.
so, when to use (for example)
j'avais expliqué
j'expliquais
Very 'tricky/unnatural' syntax for this 'idiom'
le gâteau était en forme de fusée ! so forme and fusée are two nouns with noun 2 acting as adjective (like 'la salle de classe). No article before first noun because of preposition 'en' which kinda fools us(well me) a bit. I tried "they made rocket shaped cakes" and got "ils ont fait des gâteaux en forme de fusée". Rockets have ONE SHAPE and thus all the cakes had that ONE shape.
I tried "they made cards in the shapes of flowers" and got "ils ont fait des cartes en forme de fleurs". Not 'formes'! Usually even behind idioms are solid grammatical truths.. I suspect this is a dumb question but does the use of 'en' in this context require a singular noun. Examples of 'not' dont come to mind... unless with a noun like 'larmes' which is really be default plural.
Why "la tentation a été trop forte" and not "la tentation était trop forte" or "la tentation avait été trop forte". Or do the translators usually use "was" for "has been". Is this an English phenomenon, as "was" is the "past of the past" ?
Reverso context gives several examples of passer being used to mean to pass an exam.
What am I missing????
Just to let you know...
Now in another lesson, that would be marked incorrect as you would be looking for neuf and neuve
'la maison de poupées' is NOT 'the doll's house'. It is 'the dolls house' or, more pedantically 'the dolls' house'
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level