French language Q&A Forum

Hello,

I am having trouble understanding why "Ils se sont parlé hier soir au téléphone." is the correct orthography.

Bescherelle explains that there are three cases (https://www.bescherelle.com/faq/comment-accorder-le-participe-passe-dun-verbe-pronominal/):

1. Lorsque le verbe est essentiellement pronominal (c’est-à-dire qu’il se construit toujours avec un pronom réfléchi), le participe passé s’accorde avec le sujet.

2. Lorsque le verbe est occasionnellement pronominal, le participe passé s’accorde avec le COD si celui-ci est placé avant le verbe.

3. Il ne s’accorde pas s’il n’y a pas de COD ou si celui-ci est placé après le verbe.

Obviously case 1 does not apply because parler normally takes a direct object. But everyone seems to put "Ils se sont parlé" into case three. How is "se" not the direct object? They're talking to each other. Why is it "Ils se sont brûlés." but "Ils se sont parlé."? These two seem like they should be in the same category to me. Is it just that "se parler" is a special case, or am I completely misunderstanding?

Sorry if this was already answered somewhere but I haven't found it in my searches if so.

Thank you for your help.

In the exercise entitled "A Book Lover," there is a phrase "...rien qu'en observant ses grands frères et sœurs." When I gave exactly that spelling, the s's at the end of "frère-" and "sœur-" were marked as incorrect...even though they were present in the correct example, and the narrator gave us a very clear clue that the words were plural by the way she pronounced "ses."  Just letting you know about this glitch in the program. 

Also, I frequently find myself needing a 2nd or 3rd listen to be certain about certain words. Sometimes I'm able to get the program to repeat the recording, often not; when I do, I often need to click on the audio button multiple times before it complies. Either I'm trying to cheat, or the function allowing us to hear the phrase over again doesn't work very well. Please let me know which is the case!

Otherwise, I'm enjoying these challenges very much!

It says jusqu'à ce que and subjunctive is for until someone does something so for example 'we kissed until his parents arrived'. But could it also apply to 'we talked until it became too late'? So a second part of the sentence not done by someone but a situation without a person and action.

During a quiz, the question posed was, 

Vous _______________ dans le placard. 

I conjugated it as Vous êtes cachés but it marked it as wrong. Is there a distinction when the subject is to one person? I am a bit confused. 

I am a beginner lever french learner. I have been trying to study a poem by Pierre de Ronsard, 'Quand vous serez bien vielle..'. I have understood the meaning of the rest of the poem but the second quatrain still puzzles me.

Lors, vous n’aurez servante oyant telle nouvelle,
Déjà sous le labeur à demi sommeillant,
Qui au bruit de mon nom ne s’aille réveillant,
Bénissant votre nom de louange immortelle.

I have looked up the meanings of all the individual words and have a rough understanding of the whole but without absolute certainty. I would appreciate if anyone could expound upon this quatrain.

Can you have "je courrai sur le tapis roulant pour une demie heure" because its the future tense?

It is a lady speaking, so should not the past participle of the reflexive verb se faire agree in gender?

Je trouve ça difficile écoute quellefois. Comme, parce que à 16h

J'écoute 

Par kes cest heure 

Could 'les infos' be substituted by ' l'actualité ' or ' nouvelle ' Thanks