“Would” causing confusion “We would gather at the … table”
translates to:
On se retrouvait à la table…
On se rassemblait à la table…
On se réunissait à la table…
How is the “would” in “We would gather” reflected here? How is this different from “we gathered”, “we used to gather”, or “we were gathering”?
Same thing with “and we'd devour …” translating to “et on dévorait…”.
The French imparfait seems natural here. Maybe it’s really the function of the English word “would” that’s confusing me when trying to analyse it. It’s the same word as the conditional “would”, but this is not conditional. It’s not the main verb, e.g. “to gather”. It’s almost like an English imperfect version of “to be”.
Helpful comments welcome!
why does it have to be faire with aikido? why is joue a l'aikido wrong?
“We would gather at the … table”
translates to:
On se retrouvait à la table…
On se rassemblait à la table…
On se réunissait à la table…
How is the “would” in “We would gather” reflected here? How is this different from “we gathered”, “we used to gather”, or “we were gathering”?
Same thing with “and we'd devour …” translating to “et on dévorait…”.
The French imparfait seems natural here. Maybe it’s really the function of the English word “would” that’s confusing me when trying to analyse it. It’s the same word as the conditional “would”, but this is not conditional. It’s not the main verb, e.g. “to gather”. It’s almost like an English imperfect version of “to be”.
Helpful comments welcome!
"Les enfants demandent des bonbons". I used "du" as the bonbons are not counted. Am I to use "des" because the bonbons CAN be counted, even though they are not in this sentence?
Should “nous nous sommes impatientés” actually be “nous nous sommes impatientées” because the “nous” refers to Noémie (female) and her “famille” (a feminine word)?
I guess I fell into the trap of considering "play with dolls" to be a general statement and used "les poupées".
Is this not a general statement? Should "some" be implied here and thus the use of "des poupées"?
text says de Hanoucca, not d'H.......
pourquoi?
drawing a blank tonight. if attendre ans s'attendre both mean to expect how can we tell when each is required
when the "re" comes before the verbs(for example redonner) does it give the verbs the meaning of again and back everytime? or does it change according to the verbs?
for example:
Je lui ai redonné son style: I gave back him his pen(?)
Je lui ai redonné mon stylo: I gave him my pen again(?)
thanks for comments
Tu es reste' enferme' ____________ une heure. I put "pendent" which should have been "durant". I have reviewed the lesson and can't find any distinction between pendent and durant. What am I missing?
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level