French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour,

I've read the comments but I'm still confused.  On a test question, I was marked wrong for writing "Je n'aime ni les pommes ni les poires" when asked to translate "I eat neither apples or pears".  

This seems to me like a general statement and not referring to specific apples or pears, so why would the only accepted answer be "Je n'aime ni pommes ni poires"?

Merci.

This is a question of the usage of French definite article “le”. I have encountered following two French sentences:

(1)  Il faut que vous puissiez parler français avant d’aller en France.

(2)  Pour apprandre le français, il faut que vous regardiez des films français.

As can be seen from these two sentences, you can notice that the phrase “ …parler français…”in the sentence (1) appears without the French definite article of “le”, but that the phrase “…apprandre le français…” in the sentence (2) appears with the French definite article of “le”.

Why doesn’t the definite article of “le” need in the sentence (1)?  And why does the definite article of “le” need in the sentence (2)?

It seems I am not the only one to have difficulty with these three concepts using rappeler.  I get it wrong in every A2 kwiz.  I think I need a simpler explanation.  I feel brain-dead with it at the moment, so I'm going to leave it and come back later.  That diamond is going to be elusive!

To translate the sentence " That time is not convenient for me", should one use le temps or l'heure to express the time ?Thanks for the help !

The lesson states:

To express to need + [noun], you will use :avoir besoin de/d' + (article) + noun

The examples cited show the use of the indefinite article but none include the definite article and it could be implied that the definite article is never used after  avoir besoin de/d' which is obviously wrong. It is the old problem of the specific vs the general. Since this is a perrenial problem for French learners, it might be an idea to spell it out more explictly in the lesson.

Tom

Bonjour,

If you can't say "j'ai d'autres chaussures", how then would you express "I have other shoes".

Merci.

I don't hear this being pronounces as  préférerais  BUT as préférais.

I have played it several times.

Whether a definite or indefinite article