Translate: They need us to arrive before the beginning of the ceremony.I don't understand why arrivions was incorrect and soyons arrivés correct when:
The correct translation for "They need us to arrive before the ceremony begins" is "Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie."
Explanation
Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie
This phrase uses the subjunctive present (nous arrivions) of "arriver."
It expresses a requirement concerning a future action (our arriving) that must happen before a specific event (the ceremony starts).
This is the most natural and idiomatic way in French to say that someone needs you to arrive before a certain point in time.
Ils ont besoin que nous soyons arrivés avant le début de la cérémonie
This form uses the past subjunctive (nous soyons arrivés).
It emphasizes the state of having already arrived by the time the ceremony begins, which can sound overly formal, final, or focused on the end result.
In everyday French, this structure is less commonly used for planned requirements about the future.
Why?
French typically uses the present subjunctive ("nous arrivions") after verbs that express necessity or desire (like "avoir besoin que") unless you need to stress that the action will be completed before the reference point in the past or for a resultative state.
In the context of "They need us to arrive before the ceremony begins," the English meaning aligns exactly with the present subjunctive in French.
So, the most natural and correct answer is:
Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie.
If your intent was, "They need us to have already arrived before the ceremony begins," you might use the past subjunctive, but that's not the usual reading of the English sentence.
Hello,
I was confused a couple of times because in the United States, they still use commas to represent spaces in thousands: 19,956.
In Canada, we write, 19 956. Do your lessons take this into consideration?
Thanks in advance.
The antecedent of the pronoun here is "la cryptomonnaie" — should the pronoun not therefore be "elle"?
For "Why have you left it so late?" I'm wondering whether it's possible to use "Pourquoi es-tu t'y pris tellement tard?"
I know that' "sy prendre trop tard pour faire" was used in the musicals week but I'm not sure if there's a distinction that would make this expression unsuitable in this context. Thanks!
The use of "de" truly escapes me. In this exercise, why does the "de" after "profiter des jouets" becomes "des" but in "plateau de fruits de mer" it does not? I thought that when the structure requires a "de" (as in profiter de qch or beaucoup de), the "de" didn't change to du or des (like un plauteau de qch), whereas when it doesn't require it, you use it like "some" and it does change to agree with the noun (like here with commander qch becomes "commander des pizzas").
To describe "Snow falls" ot just "Heavy snowfall", which verb should we use:
tomber or chuter?
What are the subtle or not-so-subtle differences between these two verbs?
See the first example of même as an adverb, I think that it's modifying "my mother" and thus is an adjective not an adverb. Now if it had said, "...my mother even went..." then it's modifying "went" and is an adverb.
Même ma mère est allée ...Even my mother went ...
Et Samuel se cache derrière le même buisson que Vincent
Et Samuel se cache derrière le même buisson comme Vincent
Are these two expressions the same?
I don't understand why arrivions was incorrect and soyons arrivés correct when:
The correct translation for "They need us to arrive before the ceremony begins" is "Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie."
Explanation
Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie
This phrase uses the subjunctive present (nous arrivions) of "arriver."
It expresses a requirement concerning a future action (our arriving) that must happen before a specific event (the ceremony starts).
This is the most natural and idiomatic way in French to say that someone needs you to arrive before a certain point in time.
Ils ont besoin que nous soyons arrivés avant le début de la cérémonie
This form uses the past subjunctive (nous soyons arrivés).
It emphasizes the state of having already arrived by the time the ceremony begins, which can sound overly formal, final, or focused on the end result.
In everyday French, this structure is less commonly used for planned requirements about the future.
Why?
French typically uses the present subjunctive ("nous arrivions") after verbs that express necessity or desire (like "avoir besoin que") unless you need to stress that the action will be completed before the reference point in the past or for a resultative state.
In the context of "They need us to arrive before the ceremony begins," the English meaning aligns exactly with the present subjunctive in French.
So, the most natural and correct answer is:
Ils ont besoin que nous arrivions avant le début de la cérémonie.
If your intent was, "They need us to have already arrived before the ceremony begins," you might use the past subjunctive, but that's not the usual reading of the English sentence.
Why is this incorrect?
How do I know which to use our of tenir and garder in any particular context, please?
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