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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,938 questions • 32,422 answers • 1,014,583 learners
Elles auraient eu un chien si elles avaient pu
They would have had a dog if they could have.
If I'm not mistaken:
auraient eu -> Conditional past "would have"
avaient pu -> Pluperfect "had been able to"
1. What happens to the rule about "Si" + imperfect in this case? Does it only apply to Imperfect + Conditional present?
2. Shouldn't "avaient pu" be something like "auraient eu"?
I can see why you could use the pluperfect for "They would have had a dog if they had been able to". But "... could have" seems to call for the conditional past (although I agree that the meaning is the same).
What am I missing here?
Thanks
I just read that the definite article MUST contract if followed by a masculine article, but see that "la boulangerie est près DE l'hôtel" is correct. Shouldn't it be "la boulangerie est prés DU l'hôtel"?
Think this may have crept in accidentally?
why use "pourra" instead of "pourront"? I thought tout means every, all.
Je ne comprends pas le jeu. Je "click" sur the M, par exemple, mais rien ne se passe. J'essaie de le faire glisser jusqu'à la boîte, mais encore, rien de se passes. Peux-tu m'aide? Merci
“You sang onstage?” Is rendered by you as “Vous avez chanté au scène.” I think it could also be “Vous chantiez…” if the person being addressed had bern a professional singer. No?
I've been told that you should use "dans" when there is a roof, and "sur" when there isn't. So "on the bus/plane" is "dans l'autobus/avion" and "in the fields" is "sur les champs". Is this a good general rule?
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