French language Q&A Forum

Hi,

I was wondering why there was no liason between voudrais + une, or veux+câlin?

thanks in advance

It is my observation that a Frenchman will do almost anything to avoid double objective pronouns - for fear of making mistakes and because they sound fussy, awkward, and a bit snobbish. As they are used less and less frequently, the "correct" order is being lost even to the French. I have been encouraged by my teachers to reformulate to avoid this mare's nest. So

Je lui ai donné cela plutôt que je le lui ai donné. 

Why is it "Mes pieds sont gelés" rather than "Les pieds sont gelés"?  I understood that you could use la, le, l' when referring to your own body parts.  How can you tell which to use?

Pensée et Structure, copyright 1969 by John/Jean Darbelnet, a French textbook that has haunted me since 1971, distinguishes between using prétendre in the affirmative with the indicative and with the subjunctive - a distinction blessedly no longer "felt" by the modern Frenchman, or so I am told....

So, per this evidently out-of-date usage:

Il prétend qu'il a tout compris, c'est-a-dire, il affirme que.....

Il prétend qu'on ne fasse rien sans le consulter, c'est-a-dire, il exige que......

The text makes further such distinctions for comprendre, supposer, dire, et il me semble que. This can be found in numbered paragraph 215. My original copy was so marked up, I bought a second copy on Amazon. 

I would love input from native French speakers....

I really enjoyed this exercise. Maybe I still have a bit of that young child in me, but I found it very useful in learning some of the vocabulary. And, fun, too.

My question: "Les livres etalent leur savoir..."

Since one cannot tell from the dictation if "savoir" is singular or plural, would it be incorrect to write, "Les livres etalent leurs savoirs..."? This was the only mistake that I made, and I hesitated as to whether or not I should use the singular or the plural. I chose the plural, "leurs savoirs" since each book would have its own individual knowledge to show off rather than the books showing off a shared knowledge together. 

Maybe both could be correct: "leur savoir" and "leurs savoirs" in this case.

Merci pour votre aide !

Bonjour,

Can you please explain why our house would use the nous pronoun instead of the possesive on of notres, as the house belongs to us?

Merci

This lesson needs some real sentences to demonstrate how to use the expressions.

Example "Add a liter and a half of water" = Ajouter un LITRE et demi d’eau" but "Add a liter and a third  of water" == "Ajouter un litre et UN tiers d'eau".  Sentences along these lines. I apologize if there is another lesson showing this. If there is it should be linked.  Note also I am confused by the inconsistency of online translators with the above examples..

Additional difficult sentences " One third of  students had a passing grade" == "Un tiers des étudiants ont obtenu une note de passage" OR " Un tiers des étudiants A obtenu une note de passage"??? I have seen both.