French language Q&A Forum

J'étais soulagée après que tu as réussi ton exam. Here, the main verb is in the plus que parfait and après que is followed by a verb in the passé composé. Isn't that backwards; shouldn't the main verb be in the passé composé and the subordinate verb be in the plus que parfait? 

One possible translation heer is given as "Est-ce que l'on peut aller prendre un café? "

Is the "le" at all related to the café as direct object?  Could you explain/provide examples of other uses of "l'on" in such contexts?  Merci en avance! 

Why is does this sentence begin in passe compose when most of the story has been in the imparfait? "J'ai même commencé à prétendre que nous n'étions pas disponibles." 

Can anyone let me know what is the correct meaning of comment vous vous appelez? 

Is it you call yourself... or your name is... ? 

And, why do we use comment vous vous appelez? instead of Quel est votre nom?. and what's the difference between these two?

Je te le dirai quand tu auras promis de te taire. Where did the pronoun le come from?

Bonjour, 

I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below.  However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal.  More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).

The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity).  One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ".  To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite.  I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)

Love Lawless French, by the way,

Alice

This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"

would 'j'ai achete pour ma mere un weekend' be correct ? ( cant do the accents )

Is the phrase 'Qui que ce soit' followed by the subjunctive?

Maintenant, il faut que nous attendions Noël !

The audio of this exercise was having difficulty -- one can't replay the dictées and the replay of the whole dictation broke up into disjointed bits and pieces. Can this be fixed?