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14,632 questions • 31,640 answers • 953,657 learners
Let me take a look at that...
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,632 questions • 31,640 answers • 953,657 learners
What is the difference between devoir in Le Conditionnel Passé and L'imparfait?
For example: Where do these two questions differ?
1. Tu devais fermer la porte à clé.
2. Tu aurais dû fermer la porte à clé.
And please don't simply translate them into English. Paraphrase would be better for me to understand. S'il vous plaît !
Hi,I'm doing B1 French and I generally understand the use of the subjunctive but got tripped up recently. The first example was " we want someone to guide us". ..."on veut que quelqu'un nous guide'
Am I right on thinking the subjunctive is guid+e relating to "on" which is 3rd person singular and therefore guide+e. Of course the " on veut que" demands the subjunctive.
In the second example " He wants that we guide him," ( Il veut que nous le guidions), the Subjunctive ending is guid+ions relating to "nous" which is 1st person plural therefore ends in "ions".
What adds to the confusion is that "on veut" is conjugated like "Il or "elle" but in informal use " on" can mean " we" which is "nous" in French. I hope I have explained everything well ( and as an aside j'éspere is not a Subjunctive trigger in the affirmative but is in the negative) so you may see why it's so difficult sometimes. Any comments gratefully received.
So, as the rule in this lesson states that in Negation we use Ne...Personne instead of N'importe qui for saying 'anyone' ...so, should it be? -
- Elle ne fait personne confiance. [She does not trust anyone.] Because the negation surrounds the main conjugated verb?
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
I’d be interested to get a feel for how often inversion is used in everyday speech and the register of the examples below, from further down the thread. Presumably the one with quand at the end is the least formal?
Quand Juliette et Pauline ont-elles déménagé ?
Juliette et Pauline, quand ont-elles déménagé ?
Juliette et Pauline, elles ont déménagé quand ?
I believe the explanation in the Q&A for using the present tense in place of a conjugated verb should be part of the main lesson as opposed to surfacing in the Q&A as it is an important exception to the general grammar rule and subject of the lesson.
In the first sentence. Can you use 'autant que possible' in this instance?
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