French language Q&A Forum

I'm not understanding why, in French, when someone is learning something, it is stated as "apprendre à" and not just "apprendre".

For instance: She learns to dance. - Elle apprend à danser.

Given that the unconjugated verb danser literally means "to dance", why do we need to insert à (to) again?

Tangentially, does the verb apprendre ALWAYS take the preposition à? If not, can you give me an example where it wouldn't (and maybe explain why it wouldn't in that situation)?

Thanks!

Thank you! 

Kalpana

en tant que b2/c1, combien du texte est-ce que je suis censé comprendre ? je comprends 90% mais je n'ai pas connu les noms des pays... je devrais les apprendre ?

Thank yor this useful reading text.

Is it possible to add the pronunciation of the difficult words like: campagne

"Espérons qu'ils gagnent une autre médaille d'or". Is not the intent to wish for a future happening?  So saying "Let's hope that they will win another gold medal" is correct?  "Espérons qu'ils gagneront une autre médaille d'or". ?? 

Why is it not leurs médailles when there is more than one medal?

My dictionary translated this as 'événement sportif' and did not give 'épreuve' as an option.  When I used the same dictionary in reverse by looking up the translation of 'épreuve', the translation was ordeal, test, hardship but not sporting event.  Do I need a new dictionary? 

Not complaining, but I wonder if you could explain why sometimes the "your answer matched mine" differs from the version in the text on the final page? For example I had "nous apprenons de nouvelles choses chaque fois que nous le faisons !" marked correct but it becomes "à chaque fois" in the full text at the end. And several times my answer is red-pencilled but then is given as a possible alternative. Does this reflect later editing of an exercise or mean maybe that my answer was ok but not the best?