French language Q&A Forum

One sentence for translation states: Do you think the problem is structural?  Of the possible translations: " Pensez-vous que ce soit" and another "Vous pensez que c'est".  One is in the subjunctive and the other is in the present.  Why use the present in the second?

In english (maybe just NZ?) we use the expression "tell me about it" as a sort of ironic way of saying that you share not-so-good experiences with someone. eg. Speaker 1 - it was so hot last night, I couldn't sleep. Speaker 2 - tell me about it (meaning I had the same experience). Is Parle-m'en used the same way? 

I notice that my answers in this lesson might as well be random.

This lesson opens with the statement:

“In French, there are two different structures to express "reminding", depending on whether we mean to be reminded of [something] or to prompt someone to remember [to do something].”

Let’s call to be reminded of something ‘A’ and to prompt someone to remember ‘B’

The structure of A is:

“rappeler + person one's reminded of + à + person being reminded”

unless an object pronoun appears in the sentence. If there is, the structure of A becomes:

”me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + person one is reminded of"

So there are two different sentence structures  for A.

When we want to prompt someone to remember (B), the structure is:

"rappeler + à + person being reminded + de+ [infinitif]”

unless an object pronoun appears in the sentence. If there is, the structure of B becomes:

“me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + de + [infinitif]”

Note this involves two different sentence structures in the case of B. 

Each of these sentence structures differ, one from the others, so in fact there are four structures involved in French to express reminding.

As the lesson is presented, a student must retain these four only slightly different structures and identify where to use them in order to progress with this lesson.

Were the lesson split in two - using the A and B situations described above, the student would need to retain and identify only two structures at a time, leading to a better chance of succeeding in A before progressing to B.

I imagine this would lead to this lesson attracting less confusion and improved learning. Or am I missing something? Is there a logic or pattern that evades me?

Ils s'aimaient jusqu'à la fin. Il se sont aimés jusqu'à la fin. Il me semble que le passé composé n'est pas correct dans cette situation. 

Je ne comprends pas l’utilisation du passé composé dans la première phrase. Elle n'a pas encore fini au travail - en effet, elle dit qu’il fera vingt minutes avant de pouvoir partir - donc, pourquoi n'est-ce pas "J'aurai bientôt fini" plutôt que "J'ai bientôt fini"? 

Comment quelque chose qui s’est passé déjà dans le passé peut-il être sur le point de se passer "bientôt" ?  À la fin j'ai décidé que j'avais dû mal entendre, et j'ai écrit "Je bientôt finis" - mais non - c'était le passé composé qui a été voulu...et je me gratte la tête !

Pourquoi est-ce que le pronoun en haut masculine, je sais qu'IL adore?

She went to France for vacations, she generally rents a house in the country. Then she goes to the village to buy some fruits and vegetables, and to talk with some neighbors. Then she passes by a beakey and she buys a  warm baguette and a croissant for breakfast. In the afternoon she takes a walk in the country to explore the region. Sometimes she likes to have a fruit tart and she invites a few friends over for a snack. These are very relaxing vacations.

You state there are two different structures involved here. In fact there are four:

1. "rappeler + person one's reminded of + à + person being reminded" ;

2 "me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + person one is reminded of " ;

3 "rappeler + à + person being reminded + de + [infinitif]";

4 "me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + de + [infinitif] "

Could this not be split into two lessons referring to A - 1 and 2, then B - 3 and 4? That would give struggling students the opportunity to crack each structure individually. As it stands, one has to hold and identify four structures simultaneously.

Or am I missing something? Is there a hidden logic that I have failed to spot?

ma cousine est venue pour le fetes de noel _______ elles est arrives en retard a cousin du train.

"beaucoup des chocolatiers" is listed as the correct translation. I thought that if something followed a quantity it became "de". Thanks for clarifying this for me