French language Q&A Forum

Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.

That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp !  Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)

I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !

Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.

That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.

In any case:

Great site! Many thanks!

I'm a bit confused by the meaning of this sentence (the temporality). If it refers to a one time thing (not a habit) then is it referring to future actions ? i.e. is it an equivalent of "I will make the bed once you have gotten up ?"  Or does it mean that I am right now doing the bed but I have started some time in the past after you have already gotten out of bed ?

Mettez au temps convenable

en 2021, nous (étudier) souvent en ligne

is avons étudié correct or étudiions is correct?

Which is more Correct and will I get mark for passe compose in a subjective exam.

Are both technically correct?

Hi, with regard to:

“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”

Half of the answers are of the type:

“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”

This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times. 

The other half are of the type:

“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”

This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?

Besides 'comme celles que j'avais eues les premiers mois', one of the recommended translations of 'like the ones that I'd had during the first few months' is 'telles que j'avais eues pendant les premiers mois'.

But the antecedent is 'une hallucination'.

So shouldn't this option be 'telle que j'avais eue pendant les premiers mois'...?

HI everyone,

So to my understanding reading the previous answers to the questions unambiguously would mean both am and pm? 

Also I know the two different ways to say the numbers in both 12 hour and 24hour but,  and as I'm reading the responses it seems that past 6pm you would use like deux treize quatroze etc. Would I be correct and if it's past midnight would it be the same?

Thanks

Nicole

My translate app keeps correcting un évènement to un événement. I used the latter in this exercise and the result was that my answer matched, when it did not. Please explain which is correct. Thank you.

I searched quinze heures et quart on Google Search, and found that it is acceptable, however my answer was reported wrong. Please let me know if I have done something wrong, and I appreciate your efforts? Thank you.