French language Q&A Forum

Thank you 

Best regards 

Eugene 

J'ai vu recemment la chanson avec video 'Sacre Charlemagne' sur YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH-a22xge-c (1964). Ca me semblait une chanson charmante mais aussi un peu bizarre!  

(Desole, mon ordinateur ne fait pas les accents)

For the verb "finir", what is the difference between saying "j'ai fini" and "je fini"? Would the latter be used when you are referring to something specific later in the sentence?

I translated "to be honest" as "à vrai dire" instead of "pour être honnête" but it wasn't accepted. Is there a difference between the two?

Also, my dictionary suggested repérer for "to spot," i.e., "je l'ai repéré par la baie..." Does this not work?

I used "la" rather than "y," but that was considered wrong.  How do I know when to use which?

Hi, what is the point of inverting verbs? Does it change the mood of the question? All I got from this lesson was "it sounds better".

Why is the future perfect used in this sentence: "Mais personne mieux que Claude Nougaro n'aura incarné..."?

Would present tense not work here?

I'm not sure where to put these questions.  I did read the discussion about Darbeinet's text, which gives examples of measurements.  Three examples used avoir and one used être.  It did not use faire.  (I am not familiar with Darbeinet, just trying to make sense of the discussions.)

The answer was "that Darbeinet's text is a bit out of date and to native speakers (members of the language team and relatives ;-) ), 'faire' is definitely the verb to use here."

The example that used être (from Darbeinet) was "Ce bâtiment est long de trente mètres." I don't see how this differs in construction from "La porte est large d'un mètre", one of two correct answers in a Kwiz.  

So être is out of date?  But we are being taught être  as well as faire? Quoi?

Of the three examples using avoir (from Darbeinet) one is "Ce bâtiment a trente mètres de long."  Larousse online has the example "ici la rivière a 2 km de large--  here the river is 2 km wide".  (in definition of large) Those two examples seem similar to each other in construction.

A question about "Ce gouffre a trente mètres de profondeur" from a month ago was answered with ---

/Bonjour Tecla,

This question has already been discussed : "faire" is definitely the verb to use./

So, Larousse, also, is wrong/out of date in using avoir as the verb here?  

I am truly confused.  Reading the linked discussion was part of that confusion. 

As 'they' say, halp!

I know that this phrase is incorrect: "Le bâtiment d'ancien où mes parents habitaient", but I also know that sometimes "de" is used with an adjective in similar phrases.

What is the rule about whether to add "de" to an adjective?

"Les aventures d'Astérix sont traduites" - Grateful if you could explain why "traduites" is used instead of "traduisent". My thinking is that the translation refers to the adventures (which is plural).  Thank you in advance!