Naissance de la langue française

France Modern French dates from about the year 1300, but where did it come from? Learn about the birth of French in this French audio and transcript - just click any phrase for the English translation and related grammar lessons.

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The Development of French

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Q&A relating to this exercise 3 questions, 7 answers

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MaryC1Kwiziq community member

Query regarding 'en'

Hello

Could you please explain why the pronoun 'en' is used in this phrase? I am having difficulty recognising when to use en and what it means in this context. Thanks.

....et en acceptèrent la langue

Asked 4 months ago

Like0Answer1

JimC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Hi Mary,

"Les Gaulois adoptèrent la culture romaine et en acceptèrent la langue"

As I understand it: Les Gaulois adopted the roman culture and language and accepted both.

So "en" is expressing "of it" (de cela) that is the culture, including the language.

Hope this helps.

Jim

Like14 months ago

Mary asked:View original

Query regarding 'en'

Hello

Could you please explain why the pronoun 'en' is used in this phrase? I am having difficulty recognising when to use en and what it means in this context. Thanks.

....et en acceptèrent la langue

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BrianC1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Simple Past - why/when?

Hi, the text seems to sometimes, but not that often, use the Passé Simple (e.g. from the text: adoptèrent, acceptèrent).

I know that this tense is used almost exclusively in written, as opposed to spoken, French. Do you have any other guidelines on when this tense is invoked, as it seems to be used only occasionally even in a single piece of written French.

Asked 5 months ago

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CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Brian,

Le Passé Simple is, just like Chris mentioned, a tense used in literary work. It is used for storytelling. For example, French people would use it for historical accounts, literature or journalistic accounts. It is also used in many French children storybooks (French kids spent a lot of time studying the differences between narrating stories with Le Présent de narration or Le Passé Simple - the effects it has on the story etc ;-) )

See links here: the-french-simple-past-le-passe-simple - passe-simple - Tenses/le-passe-simple

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Like15 months ago

ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

There are whole books written in simple past. It is a more literary tense. Don‘t know what else to say about it. You certainly don‘t use it in everyday speech.

Like15 months ago

Brian asked:View original

Simple Past - why/when?

Hi, the text seems to sometimes, but not that often, use the Passé Simple (e.g. from the text: adoptèrent, acceptèrent).

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MartinaA1Kwiziq community member

Good morning, there's no English translation for this article

Asked 10 months ago

Like0Answer4

CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Martina,

If you click on any expression /sentence in the French text , a yellow box opens with the translation...

Like010 months ago

MartinaA1Kwiziq community member

Thank you Cécile.

Like010 months ago

MerleA1Kwiziq community member

Merci beaucoup. très intéressant

Like08 months ago

TracyA1Kwiziq community member

Méli-mélo: never seen that word before. Kwiziq is very helpful with strengthening my French vocabulary. Thank you.

Like07 months ago

Martina asked:View original

Good morning, there's no English translation for this article

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