Recognizing the different tensesHello, I am a total beginner at French, and I hope someone can please guide me. I am having trouble recognising the different tenses when reading a sentence in French. In English we would say : "He READS a book" as an answer to a question like "what does he do whilst taking the tube?".
If the question was "what is he doing?", In English we would say "He is READING/ a/ this/that". How do I tell whether the person is DOING something or DOES something in French? Example :
"Elle lit un livre" She reads a book.
"Elle lit un livre" she's reading a book.
Initially, I thought you'd have to read the rest of the sentence to work it out, but I can't imagine this is how it works all the time. In English there is a distinctive difference : "I go to the .../I AM going to the..."
"He has a.../He HAD a..."
"I watch .../ I AM watching".
Have I missed something in the lessons?
Apologies for the long winded question and capitalisation. I like to believe I am fluent in English (it's the only language I know) however I find articulating in my own language difficult at the best of times !!
Thanks
Could somebody tell me the meaning of 'les santons' in this dictée? The sentence is; j'ai laissé la petite jouer avec les santons
I know this lesson is about the plus que parfait but to say "had to", can you also use the passé composé? For example, he had to leave before 5. "Il a dû partir à 5 heures.
Why is "Je lui envoye une massage" instead of "Je l'envoye une massage?" Thanks
Hello, I am a total beginner at French, and I hope someone can please guide me. I am having trouble recognising the different tenses when reading a sentence in French. In English we would say : "He READS a book" as an answer to a question like "what does he do whilst taking the tube?".
If the question was "what is he doing?", In English we would say "He is READING/ a/ this/that". How do I tell whether the person is DOING something or DOES something in French? Example :
"Elle lit un livre" She reads a book.
"Elle lit un livre" she's reading a book.
Initially, I thought you'd have to read the rest of the sentence to work it out, but I can't imagine this is how it works all the time. In English there is a distinctive difference : "I go to the .../I AM going to the..."
"He has a.../He HAD a..."
"I watch .../ I AM watching".
Have I missed something in the lessons?
Apologies for the long winded question and capitalisation. I like to believe I am fluent in English (it's the only language I know) however I find articulating in my own language difficult at the best of times !!
Thanks
Hi, why does “the que before the penser” (b) & (c) become “a quoi after the penser” (a)?
(a) “Et vous, vous pensez QUOI des selfies ?”
(b) “Et vous, QUE pensez-vous des selfies ?”
(c) “Et vous, QU'est-ce que vous pensez des selfies ?”
would translate as: mes mains were not stopping trembling. I get very confused over this particular usage. Most of the use of imparfait that I get wrong are due to this rule. Could you explain it better?
In the sentence ‘Notre nouvelle édition s’est enrichie des nombreux artistes...’ I wonder if ‘des’ should be changed to ‘de’ as per the lesson. If not, could you please explain why.
Thanks.
You really need to work on these types of exercises. Sometimes if there are two example sentences and you write one word from example one but the rest of your sentence matches example two, it marks that sentence wrong even though it is right. You need to include every combination of correct sentences!
The "je" in this sentence sound like "te". "Je n'en avais jamais entendu parler avant"
Nancy
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