Présentation de l'Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie

20 March is the International Day of Francophonie, and here's an introduction to the organisation behind it.
After watching the video, scroll down to the transcript and click any word for the English translation and links to related grammar lessons.

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MarshaB2Kwiziq community member

Partitive vs definite articles

The use of partitive vs definite articles continues to be confusing to me, such as in this phrase in the second to last paragraph, "Un lien d'avenir, grâce à l'engagement ". It is translated as, "A link to the future, thanks to the commitment," . Why is d'avenir used and not à l'avenir? And why à l'engagement and not d'engagement?

Asked 1 year ago

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JimC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I'm not aware of the text that you are quoting from but I can offer a couple of points that may help.

1) The definite article is omitted In French in forming an attributive noun (that is a noun used as an adjective).

So I'm thinking that the text "Un lien d'avenir" means "a future link" where "d'avenir" describes the link.

2) L' engagement is a contract or commitment making possible the link.

That's my input for what it is worth.

Alan (Jim)

Like11 year ago

Marsha asked:View original

Partitive vs definite articles

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