French language Q&A Forum

Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers

13,785 questions • 29,647 answers • 847,082 learners

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level

An D.C1Kwiziq community member

de qui ou duquel ?

Je sais que ce n'est pas du bon français d'écrire par example les garçons à côte de qui je suis assis me parlent et que je dois écrire les garçons à côte desquels je suis assis me parlent. Dois-je de la même façon suivre le dit régle en écrivant Les garçons avec lesquels on avait joué sont partis et pas Les garçons avec qui on avait joué sont partis ?

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer3

Stephanie H.A2Kwiziq community member

marron ou brun?

I have seen brown (in English) as both marron and brun in French, how are they different or is either correct?

Asked 3 years ago

Like4Answer2

chris w.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Future/present/past tenses in the subjunctive'J'ai peur qu'il ne soit à l'heure. I am afraid he is on time.' Could that not also mean 'he will be on time' or 'he was on time', preumably from context?

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer2

chris w.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Multiple use of pour avoir xxx in a sentence

Le jeune homme a été récompensé pour avoir sauvé l'enfant de la noyade. The young man has been rewarded for saving the child from drowning. Could that be ' pour avoir noyé ‘? Le noyade is, I assume, 'the drowning?'

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer3

J. L.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Misleading d'ICI

In the test for this lesson there is a sentence "Tu arriveras d'ici lundi" and the answer is "You'll get here by Monday.".

Isn't this a wrong translation? The sentence should be "you will arrive BY Monday(d'ici lundi). To say "you will get HERE by Monday" should be "Tu y arriveras d'ici lundi" or cringe "Tu arriveras ICI d'ici lundi. "

Unless the verb arriver without a destination defaults to "here".

Asked 3 years ago

Like2Answer4

Anita P.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

C’était un peu du n’importe quoi

C’était un peu du n’importe quoi- why isn’t it “c’était un peu de n’importe quoi “ ? I always thought that de was used after a quantity ?

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer2

Mark P.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Y or de.. is this why I get confused

Notice that to refer to a place previously mentioned in French, you use the pronoun y ('there').

I am struggling with this. It seems to confirm the meaning I learned many years ago but then it all gets contradicted when we get venir de... where de itself is taking on a different meaning and is being used as a conjunction instead of an article. Maybe we need to forget the translation as "there" and formulate the rule as en replaces de and y replaces à.. and place is irrelevant?

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer2

Kimber H.B2Kwiziq community member

The vocab/grammar choices are questionable at times here- Il adore les animaux donc il était très excité !/Vocab: This adjective on its own often has a sexual connotation, so it's better to use another expression, e.g. Il attendait avec impatience cette sortie./Grammar: - needs an "en" -> il EN était très enthousiaste etc. See more here: excited - English-French Dictionary WordReference.com

- Les singes étaient malicieux/this has a more negative meaning... one wouldn't laugh about it...."farceurs" is better here as that would elicit laughter

- nous avons bien rigolé !/Grammar: - needs an "en" ->nous EN avons bien rigolé

- j'ai préféré le numéro de trapèze : j'ai retenu /qui m'a fait retenir mon souffle plusieurs fois !

Asked 3 years ago

Like1Answer2

Miky G.C1Kwiziq community member

Ont été accueillis

La traduction de " students were welcomed by..." n' est-elle pas "furent accueillis" au lieu de "ont été accueillis" ?

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer1

tony w.C1Kwiziq community member

why infinitive?

why is (make us do our homework)translated as "faire faire"