French language Q&A Forum

Hi, just a comment on one of the English lines. I don’t think we can have “Annoyed by the elephant, a part of Guitri population referred the matter to the authorities”, and would recommend either “Annoyed by the elephant, a part of Guitri’s population referred the matter to the authorities” or “Annoyed by the elephant, a part of the Guitri population referred the matter to the authorities”.

In the sentence "...où j'ai vu les plus merveilleuses peintures préhistoriques de ma vie. ", why is tableaux not accepted as a synonym for peintures.  My dictionary makes no real distinction between the two words.

I think there may be a problem on your end here with the technology.  It has been very difficult to advance to the next sentence in the dictation, as it seems the system is "stuck."  Please look into this matter.  Thank you.

Why 'du' in 'la demeur du Capitaine Haddock' instead of 'de' as in fan de Tintin and Château de Cheverny?  In general, when I interpret something as possessive, for example Tintin's fan or Cheverny's castle, I use 'de'.  So, I am puzzled about the use of 'du' for Captain Haddock's house.  I get this wrong a lot, so if you can point me to a grammar lesson or give me some guidance, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks, in advance.

A couple of the examples appear to use être in constructing the past tense:

Yann est passé par ton quartier 

While others use avoir:

Nous avons passé une semaine

The above question linked to this page, though it’s not one of the examples given (can’t find "il y a longtemps" elsewhere on the site)

It’s translated as "This story happened a long time ago" and I’m wondering why it’s not "a very long time ago", or is "très" needed for the distant past?

“jamais encore” is not acceptable?  You cannot say “ Marco n'ira jamais encore à un concert de rock”?

It seems strange that such a beautiful song should finish with the line “ In the shadow of your dog”. Chien can also be translated as charm eg avoir du chien. For what reason, therefore, is the final line not “ In the shadow of your charm”?

The French name of the exercise is written as ‘“My” liste de courses’  

The English sentence says "She can sing", not "She knows how to sing". I know how to sing but I can't sing because my voice is terrible. Can all French people (or Quebecoise) who know how to sing, actually sing???