French language Q&A Forum

Just completely thrown by the imparfait/passé composé choices in this one. Before I started this course, I would have translated without hesitation "This has always been my favourite..." using the passé composé. However, mindful of "continuing activity in the past", I used the imparfait... and, as a result of that being wrong, thought, ok, I'll use the passé compose again at "I really wanted to see it on stage" (completed action in the past, surely?) - and of course that was wrong too. I'm really struggling to see what the logic is for using the particular tenses used here. The irony is, that if I'd followed my gut instincts and not thought about it, I'd almost certainly have got them the right way round!

The test statement is "J'habite _____ Texas." The hint is "Le Texas is an American State." Shouldn't the answer be "J'habite dans le Texas" according to the very first example in the regions, states, counties section yet the answer given is "J'habite au Texas." All the exceptions are overwhelming but this seems to be exactly like the example.

Hi,

The title reads, Autour du monde en moto, but in the first sentence of the text we are told to use "à" moto which actually seems correct since a motorcycle is an individual mode of transportation.  Maybe you could fix the title?

In the first sentence I think it should be written "je ne m'attendais pas à ce que CE soit si grand". (The 2nd "ce" can be heard on the audio file, but does not appear in the text) 

J'ai toujours voulu être danseuse - I always wanted to be a dancer.

Please remind me why this sentence is passé composé. It seems to me that it is something that she always used to want i.e. it describes a past continuous state of mind. I understood that verbs such as vouloir (and aimer, penser, savoir etc) usually use the imparfait (unless a specific time is specified), and that if anything the case for imparfait would be strengthened by adding "toujours" which implies a habitual state. So I was wondering why she didn't say "Je voulais toujours être danseuse" instead. Thanks. 

Advised by Cecile: "But the construction you suggest ending with a pronoun might be used by a very young French child but isn't correct French."

 I have never seen it so pointedly stated anywhere. Seems to me once you 'learn' that faux pas you are halfway through the struggles of using pronouns....where to put them.

I find this advice so clarifying. I may be making too much of a big deal abut it...but it hit me like a lightbulb.

Do you think, modified a little,  it is advisable to adopt as  rote? Would it hold up universally enough. 

Do not put your object pronouns at the end of a sentence (after the verb) UNLESS it is the STRESS VERSION OF THE PRONOUN. 

Elle m'a répondu- I take that the past participle here is not feminine because the me (which refers to the female narrator) is an indirect object?

Kind regards,

Kevin