French language Q&A Forum

In the exercise:

“the one which ran along the stream up to her favourite clearing.”

translates to:

“celui qui longeait le ruisseau jusqu'à sa petite clairière favorite.”

Is the use of ‘petite’ in order to indicate affection for the clearing, thereby emphasising that it is a ‘favourite’ place? I’m wondering how to interpret it, as the English doesn’t contain the adjective ‘little’ or ‘small’. 

Salut,

pourquoi on dit "C'est un ange !" quand on parle de la fillette ?

la fillette = elle, n'est-ce pas?

Merci.

Au cours des années, elle m'a transmis sa passion - why is passé composé used? She clearly says 'over the years' so a repeated action? surely the imparfait would be used here?

When can you use  in past tense or 

Bonjour,  je me demande pourquoi il y a tant d’enseignants qui disent que le mot  « rendre visite » n’est utilisé que la première fois qu’on rencontre qqn ? D’où vient cette idée ?

Hi, this struck me as odd: "vous devriez peut-être considérer que la relation n'est pas n'est pas censée durer" - why not just "n'est pas censée durer"? Why the repetition?

"Quand elle aura des enfants, elle changera d'avis."

Usually we use 'changer de + noun' as a rule. So if I say '"...elle changera de son avis."  Why is that incorrect? ....to say... "...she will change her opinion/mind."

Hey everyone, 

I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but  I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she

she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed. 

Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc. 

The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of  ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?

What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French?  (That aren’t so obvious.)

Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻

For the sentence, "I've faced many challenges since I became a parent...", why do you use the passe compose instead of the present tense? E.g., je rencontre de nombreux défis depuis que je suis devenu parent.