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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,939 questions • 32,427 answers • 1,014,858 learners
Why is this feminine? I wrote cet après-midi, because I understood afternoon was masculine in French.
HI,
I was wondering there was a sentence above ma petite amie est canadienne how come you use petite amie for girlfriend and not ma copaine?
Thanks
Nicole
Nous avons été très surpris en apprenant la nouvelle.
We were really surprised when we heard the news.
I would have used nous étions instead of nous avons été. Is that not correct?
In English nous avons été très surpris translates to - We have been very surprised which implies the surprise happened and is still ongoing or at least has a prolonged duration, whereas nous étions translates to - We were, which implies it happened but is no longer ongoing. The latter seems to be the correct answer to this question especially since being surprised is usually a point in time thing.
Bonsoir à tous,
In this section of text:
Mais après seulement quelques semaines, elle a commencé à s'épanouir : elle ne cachait plus sa bouche quand elle souriait, et on pouvait maintenant entendre sa voix clairement quand elle parlait, ce qui arrivait plus souvent qu'avant.
Can arriver and se passer be used interchangeably here? i.e. "ce qui se passait plus souvent qu'avant."
'se passait' wasn't given as an alternative option in the available correct answers.
Nick
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