French language Q&A Forum

"je construisais des modèles de sa fusée".

Why modèles  ? Isn't maquette the appropriate word for this type of model ?

I notice that my answers in this lesson might as well be random.

This lesson opens with the statement:

“In French, there are two different structures to express "reminding", depending on whether we mean to be reminded of [something] or to prompt someone to remember [to do something].”

Let’s call to be reminded of something ‘A’ and to prompt someone to remember ‘B’

The structure of A is:

“rappeler + person one's reminded of + à + person being reminded”

unless an object pronoun appears in the sentence. If there is, the structure of A becomes:

”me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + person one is reminded of"

So there are two different sentence structures  for A.

When we want to prompt someone to remember (B), the structure is:

"rappeler + à + person being reminded + de+ [infinitif]”

unless an object pronoun appears in the sentence. If there is, the structure of B becomes:

“me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + de + [infinitif]”

Note this involves two different sentence structures in the case of B. 

Each of these sentence structures differ, one from the others, so in fact there are four structures involved in French to express reminding.

As the lesson is presented, a student must retain these four only slightly different structures and identify where to use them in order to progress with this lesson.

Were the lesson split in two - using the A and B situations described above, the student would need to retain and identify only two structures at a time, leading to a better chance of succeeding in A before progressing to B.

I imagine this would lead to this lesson attracting less confusion and improved learning. Or am I missing something? Is there a logic or pattern that evades me?

Marie likes to go on vacation in France.  Generally she rents a house in teh country.  This morning, she walked into the village to buy some fruits and vegetables.  and to discuss (chat?) with her neighbors.  She also passes a bakery and she buys a  warm baguette and some croissants for her breakfast.  In the afternoon she will walk in the country, or she will explore the area.  Smetimes she makes a good tart with some fruits and she invites her friends for a snack. This is a very relaxing vacation!

How's that for A0 level?  

You state there are two different structures involved here. In fact there are four:

1. "rappeler + person one's reminded of + à + person being reminded" ;

2 "me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + person one is reminded of " ;

3 "rappeler + à + person being reminded + de + [infinitif]";

4 "me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + rappeler + de + [infinitif] "

Could this not be split into two lessons referring to A - 1 and 2, then B - 3 and 4? That would give struggling students the opportunity to crack each structure individually. As it stands, one has to hold and identify four structures simultaneously.

Or am I missing something? Is there a hidden logic that I have failed to spot?

If ce qui/ ce que is supposed to be used to refer to a part of a sentence/ an idea, instead of just a single word, then why does this sentence use ce que?:

"C'est tout ce que j'ai dit"

I know that 'tout' could be considered a general idea, but why is ce que not used in this sentence, when 'quelque chose' is also a general idea?:

"C'est quelque chose que j'ai dit"

Would it be possible to re-listen at the original speed of the announcer?

I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused: 

For "Aline hung big balloons everywhere"  , The answer was given as, "Aline a accroché des gros ballons partout". I actually happened to get it right, but doesn't 'des' before an adjective modifying a noun turn into a 'de'?

In english (maybe just NZ?) we use the expression "tell me about it" as a sort of ironic way of saying that you share not-so-good experiences with someone. eg. Speaker 1 - it was so hot last night, I couldn't sleep. Speaker 2 - tell me about it (meaning I had the same experience). Is Parle-m'en used the same way? 

What is the difference between j'ai vingt and and je suis grand considering they are both followed by a consonant that is not h

What is the difference between what "quel" quel dommage and "comment" as in comment-tu t'appelle