French language Q&A Forum

ceci ou cela    Doesn't celui-ci ou celui-la  mean the same thing, this or that ?

Hello, I was doing the writing exercise, Catherine Ségurane: a local heroine, I came across this sentence: 

If you look behind me, on the ancient wall of the city,

I put ancien after mur but the correct answer is: 

Si vous regardez derrière moi, sur l'ancien mur de la cité

And no, there was no hint about that. I really don't understand why we use ancien before the noun in that case. 

I see above that bleu canard ´ is translated as ´peacock blue’    Should this not be duck blué´Paon is peacock I thought.  Am I wrong?

Hi. In a Kwiz this was the question:

Avant que je n'________ le bruit, je dormais à poings fermés.

The answer was aie entendu.

Can someone please explain the n' that's in there?

I understand that the partative article is used for uncountable amounts. e.g. 'je mange des pâtes'. It is clear that pasta is never going to be counted, so it makes sense it would be partative des.

However if i say 'je mange des carottes', I could mean a big plate of chopped up carrots which are uncountable, which would be partative des. 

Or I could mean I am eating 3 whole carrots which are definitely countable. So would this be indefinite des?

Is it the context that would define which article is used? 

Salut

This lesson is giving me more grey hairs! I get it wrong constantly!

On the test, you ask “How would you say "You remind him of Audrey Hepburn." ?
the correct answer is: Tu lui rappelles Audrey Hepburn.

My answer is marked as incorrect “Tu rappelles Audrey Hepburn à lui.”

But in the lesson you say:

 Il rappelle son ex à Maria. He reminds Maria of her ex.

Elle rappelle sa sœur à Alain. She reminds Alain of his sister.

Thanks

Best, Laura 

Why is it 'le jeudi' not just 'jeud'i?

We are talking about a particular Thursday here...

"Je ne manque de rien." is given as the correct translation for "I lack nothing". Why the "ne"? Why not just "Je manque de rien"? It has been about three years since I paid attention to French, and I am really rusty.