French language Q&A Forum

I have never saw the use of bicross before, but always VTT (vélo tout terrain). Is this a difference between written and spoken language or is it used along eachother? 

Thanks in advance 

It's very frustrating, even after listening to it 20 times and with the volume turned up, I hear, "...mais longtemps encore très souvent les chansons à la radio...".

Hello All.

I was reviewing pronouns using this page:

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indirect-objects-2/

It mentions using the adverbial pronoun "y" and then gives an example:

I thought that "y" could only be used to reference an inanimate object, not a person.

Are there special cases? What am I missing here?

Thank You in advance.

Bob

Why is this not in Imparfait? It's a description and the family, presumably, continues to love dogs. 

If you don't know the person, how can you use te; si vous ne connaissez pas cette personne, comment peut-on utiliser te?

hi,

I was wondering what is the easiest way to know when something is in the 12 hour clock or when something is in the 24 hour clock? This seems to be my most problem in this section of understanding.

thanks

nicole

The following sentence has the verb following 'que'. Is this OK?  

C'est ainsi que se termine cette histoire.That's how this story ends.
Shouldn't it be:C'est ainsi que cette histoire se termine.

Why was “je vais au parc” marked wrong. Isn’t it an alternative way of saying “I go to the park” along with “dans le parc”?

Hey everyone, 

I’m a novice when it comes to spoken French and the subtleties of the language but  I really want to do it justice when I reference it in my novel. The particular scene I need help with is a first person account of a French woman where she tells the reader about an occasion when was approached by English Gentleman (an official and very well educated) who was fluent French speaker, but not a native, and how she knew he wasn't French. I wanted to include details of how she

she might have missed initially if she wasn’t paying too much attention to him but as her guard was up already in the scene, she was able to spot the giveaways that others may have missed. 

Whether it be pronunciation, tense, inflection or something to do with the time etc. 

The English man in the scene approached the French woman when she’s at work in a post office and hands her a note. He tells her something along the lines of  ”I need this delivered by tomorrow morning, 9:30 at the latest. Tracked” with a French name and address on the envelope. I’m thinking something around the way he says the time could be interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work yet?

What are some subtle giveaways that native French speakers pick up with non native French speakers that indicate to them them that they’re not French?  (That aren’t so obvious.)

Any thoughts will be helpful. Thank you for your time🙏🏻

Bonjour,

In one of the examples above:
Maintenant que ses parents n'étaient plus là, elle devait s'occuper de sa sœur.

However I'm confused because it states that Devoir with l'imparfait is "was supposed to [do]", however the translation is:
Now that her parents were gone, she had to take care of her sister.

Why is it not:
Now that her parents were gone, she was supposed to take care of her sister.

Merci