Enthusiastic support for the passé simple.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!
Hi, if I was to say ‘I have been learning French since I was in school’, would I say: ‘J’apprends français depuis j’étais à l’école’ or ‘j’apprends français depuis je suis à l’école’? I am no longer in school so I’m thinking it may be the former however I’m not sure if the whole sentence needs to be in the present tense. Thanks
L'Iftar veut dire le dîner, non? Le soohor est le petit-déjeuner. :)
In the test, it says -Il termine dans 2 minutes. shouldnt it be ..en 2 minutes. i have learnt that when some action finishes within a particular time we use en.
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!
This was a question in one of the quizzes:
Il m'a offert une boîte ________ bijoux pour ranger mes colliers.
Why is it "je te l'avais dit" and not "je te l'ai dit!"?
Thanks!
Please explain why the given answer is "Alain lui a plaire tout a suite" which to me says Alain likes him... Its not like il manque is it.
Merci, j'ai aimé le nouveau vocabulaire.
alors, est-ce que "faire un carton", "se défouler" "bluffant" et "mal en point" sont des expressions assez courantes maintenant?
In this lesson the note about the conversational past states that in these cases, the en will be before or after être: formally, it should be before, but in practice, it often ends up after.
Following this advice I put "Nous en nous sommes allés après le dessert.". This was flagged as incorrect, and "Nous nous en sommes allés après le dessert." as being correct.
This seems inconsistent with the note. I see there have been other questions about this topic. To me, "nous en nous sommes" flows off the tongue better than "nous nous en sommes".
In answer to Stephen's question:
Aurelie wanted to write a little poem for us to make it more fun and enjoyable.
"Baluchon" rhymes with "regions".
I learned a new word: "Baluchon". It is a bit old-fashioned and I can picture a hobo with his "baluchon" over his shoulder.
This lesson was also a nice review of: "galettes" and "beffroi".
Merci !
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