French language Q&A Forum

I was really scratching my head as to why the lesson seemed to think there was a difficulty about whether it should be "dans la rue" or "sur la rue".

Most people in England would say "I live in such and such street", so there's no difficulty at all in saying "J'habite dans rue such and such".

I suspect that to live "on" a street is an American usage, so perhaps the lesson should deal with that in the usual way by translating as "I live in xxxx street (US  I live on xxx street)" ?

In the 5th sentence of the full text to read and listen to, the audio says "Mon fils David, lui va être un loup garou", but the text shows "Mon fils David va être un loup garou". 

For the line “Chaque seconde, un hectare de forêt vierge mondiale est détruit” one lesson listed is passive voice. Is this really passive voice, or is “détruit” just an adjective in this case? I would be able to see more clearly the passive voice nature of, for example, “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed by foresters” or even “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed” (with an implied subject enacting the verb). However, I’m not getting the passive voice in the original line, perhaps because “is” rather than “was” is being used. Explanation welcome, as I do struggle with passive voice topics.

Passive voice

'Certain adverbs of time and manner can both be AT THE END or AT THE START of the sentence' - no, they can be used 'either at the end or at the start'. You are confusing 'both/and' with 'either/or'.

So while you can’t say ‘J’ai des autres chaussures’ , can you say ‘j’ai besoin des autres chaussures?’  More important, how would you say ‘I have some of the other shoes?’ How is that not ‘des autres chaussures’? 

Can someone at least point me to a detailed explanation of when to use Tu. I am 74 and I have assumed nobody will tutoyer me automatically. I would prefer not to tutoyer someone else merely for some hierarchical reason, so I am focusing on the vous form (as does Pimsleur, which I am also using). But, if I go to a French Meet Up in America, will everyone be using Tu? And what about visiting Guadeloupe?

Hello,

I hear a rhotic r sound in majestueuse. Is this a regional difference in accent?

Thank you

Why could you not use étreinte or embrasser for hugging please? Enlacement only returns as one option in dictionaries and DeepL and Google translate so why is it preferred here? Thanks.

First issue:

Interaction p 23 : Tu as de l'argent pour faire les courses? Non, j'ai besoin d'argent.

It explains "avoir besoin de uses de alone when followed by a noun used in the partitive sense" which must be the rationale for the response above.  

1.  Why isn't the question also partitive sense? Please help me make the distinction.

Second issue:

On p340, it says that avoir besoin de is one of a small number of verbs (it also includes s'agir de, parler de, se souvenir de) that require "de" before a noun object and gives the example

"J'ai besoin d'argent pour voyager" (no article before "argent") 

and also gives "Nous parlons du Canada en cours" (has the article); Il s'agit d'un voyage au Canada; On se souvient du passé là-bas.

2.  For all those examples on p340 except avoir besoin de, there is an article and I don't know why they differ.

I am becoming confused. Can someone help please?

Less commonly, à + indirect object may be replaced with the adverbial pronoun y: