French language Q&A Forum

Hello! I was wondering how to translate an inversion from English into French. For example, the English 'I left early, so bad was the party'. Could you use an inversion and say 'Je suis parti tôt, si mauvaise était la fête'? Or something more like 'Je suis parti tôt, tant la fête était mauvaise'. 

Thank you very much

Why not simply : J’ai peur qu’il soit à l’heure ? Why is « ne » necessary ?  

Which rule of grammar covers the word order for the sentence below?:

The hint given is «In French, invert the verb and subject “the…spirits that make the planters”

des alcools de palme artisanaux que fabriquent les planteurs

The quick Lesson on this sites that in the negative imperative the subject pronoun (tu, vous, nous) is dropped.

In Schaum's Outlines text, I see the following negative imperatives: Ne te reveille pas,  Ne nous reveillons pas, and Ne vous reveille pas.

One of the exercise questions in chapter 5 of same text  asks for the negative imperative of "Promenez-vous dans le parc" The answer is Ne vous promenez pas dans le parc.

Having trouble understanding this

I do understand the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, but for this  English speaker there seems to a real difference between "tu as descendu le cadeau" or  "j’ai descendu les boîtes" versus "j’ai descendu les escaliers". You don’t "do" anything (like carrying it down or getting it down) to the staircase/ladder/beanstalk! I’m not sure if the French view the two situations identically or whether it’s just idiomatic to descend something with steps or rungs using the transitive form ?

My petit quiz question was Nous mettrons la table ... which was translated as "We'll lay the table ..."  In the US, we use "set" not "lay," the latter having an uncomfortable connotation!

"Ce soir, je fais à dîner."  When I first read this example, I read the word, "diner" as a noun, (As in "Ce soir je fais le diner"). 

But after reading through the questions and seeing the example, "Je fais a manger", I suspect that it is really the infinitve form of the verb, "diner" = "to eat dinner".

This is a new expression for me. Am I understanding correctly that one can say, for example:

"Je fais a coudre" = I am sewing.

"Il fait a dessiner" = He is drawing.

"Nous faisons a dejeuner" = We are making lunch.

"Les enfants font a nettoyer leur chambre" = The children are cleaning up their room"

-?

And, I suspect that this expression would only be used when there is a concrete or tangible result of the action, ie."Vous faites a nager" might not work.

Thanks in advance for any explanation.

Is there a lesson on this? If not, it might be helpful to add one. 

Can you also ask this "Tu t'es levé à cinq heures ?"

In two places in this exercise the adjective precedes the noun.  I don't understand why.  Can someone explain?  The situations were "L'imposant animal" and "riches plantations."  Thanks.