French language Q&A Forum

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

A video lesson would be nice.  It seems most of the other lessons offer at least one video as a supplemental resource. Merci.

In another lesson, it talks about not using mon, ton etc but using le, la etc. with clothing and parts of the body. Therefore, would it be better to say

"Le manteau est pareil, et la cravate est pareille " rather than "Mon manteau est pareil, et ma cravate est pareille" 

or can you say both or does it depend upon context?

Thanks

Rachel

In the lesson "Using le, la, les with body parts and clothing (definite articles)", the definite article is used instead of the possessive.

One of the examples in that lesson:

Ils ont les yeux fermésThey have their eyes closed

Following that example, we'd come up with "Ils sucent encore le pouce" instead of "Ils sucent encore leur pouce".