Devoir in imparfait / passé composé In this exercise I got this tense wrong (as I usually do for the verb devoir). The linked lesson on this topic is misleading. It says that when devoir is used in the imparfait e.g je devais, it means I was supposed to do (an obligation, in most cases not met) whereas it has a different meaning in the passé composé where j’ai dû = I had to do, or I must have done (an obligation that was met, or a hypothesis on a past situation). This doesn’t seem to be correct in practice, where if it is a repeated action we would still use the imparfait.
For example, this week’s exercise asked us to translate “... that we had to develop (use nous)”. I put: “que nous avons dû développer” which is in accord with the lesson but was marked as incorrect, with one of the given options being “que nous devions développer”. Although I can see the logic in that, it appears on the surface to directly contradict what the linked lesson tells us.
(Interestingly, in the full text of the passage after the exercise, they used “qu’il fallait développer” which does get around this problem, but it is sort of cheating, as we were told to use “nous” when translating this particular phrase, haha)
The above sentence was part of a quiz. Does sur not take a modifier? Shouldn't it be sur l'internet?
Why we say
Elle est son sac
Not Elle est sa sac
It would be useful for this lesson to point out that the issue of agreement only arises with être verbs (and the passive voice). No question arises for example with "Hier, on a quitté le travail plus tôt."
Is there any other chance that I could take the level test again?
Why is is not "vous n'avez pas DE petite place......"?
why is
'je vous la donne' the translation for 'I give it to you' when we don't know the gender of 'it'? shouldn't it be 'je vous le donne'
in the same manner why is 'je la lui a écrite' - i wrote it to her - not 'je le lui a écrit'?
In this exercise I got this tense wrong (as I usually do for the verb devoir). The linked lesson on this topic is misleading. It says that when devoir is used in the imparfait e.g je devais, it means I was supposed to do (an obligation, in most cases not met) whereas it has a different meaning in the passé composé where j’ai dû = I had to do, or I must have done (an obligation that was met, or a hypothesis on a past situation). This doesn’t seem to be correct in practice, where if it is a repeated action we would still use the imparfait.
For example, this week’s exercise asked us to translate “... that we had to develop (use nous)”. I put: “que nous avons dû développer” which is in accord with the lesson but was marked as incorrect, with one of the given options being “que nous devions développer”. Although I can see the logic in that, it appears on the surface to directly contradict what the linked lesson tells us.
(Interestingly, in the full text of the passage after the exercise, they used “qu’il fallait développer” which does get around this problem, but it is sort of cheating, as we were told to use “nous” when translating this particular phrase, haha)
"et je m'étais préparé une journée aux petits oignons."
Since the speaker/narrator is clearly a women, wouldn't the sentence be...
"et je m'étais préparée une journée aux petits oignons." ???
Hi, I was expecting to see a definite article (“un”) before rendez-vous in “J’ai rendez-vous cet après-midi”. Could you explain why this is not needed please?
In the first sentence it is votre frere andthe answer is vôtre frere???
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