Grammatical construction of, "...nous étions parties"Hi,
I had written, "... nous étions partis" in lieu of the recommended, "... nous étions parties". I don't understand the recommendation:
So "étions" as auxiliary "être" in imperfect (indicative) tense, 1st person plural, added to the past participle "parti" so as to construct the compound past perfect tense.
I constructed the past particle as male gender plural so, "partis". This as we have two assumed female genders (Joséphine and the writer Amélie) as well as at least one other, gender unknown, as expressed through the larger sentence, "... et avec laquelle nous étions parties".
I thought the rule for French grammar was, choose the male gender when the gender is unknown...l don't want to support patriarchy. I do want to get my grammar straight. Thanks!
I don't understand the usage of "à enchaîner" here.
Can someone explain the grammar ? It's not a fixed expression as far as I can see. Why à + infinitive ? Why not en + present participle ? Is it the same thing ? How would we translate this ? By/while enchaining ?
Is it the same as "en enchaînant" (en + present participle) , which would mean "in enchaining", or perhaps "while enchaining"
am I correct ?
Thanks Paul.
When should you use offrir instead of donner to say give?
Hi,
I had written, "... nous étions partis" in lieu of the recommended, "... nous étions parties". I don't understand the recommendation:
So "étions" as auxiliary "être" in imperfect (indicative) tense, 1st person plural, added to the past participle "parti" so as to construct the compound past perfect tense.
I constructed the past particle as male gender plural so, "partis". This as we have two assumed female genders (Joséphine and the writer Amélie) as well as at least one other, gender unknown, as expressed through the larger sentence, "... et avec laquelle nous étions parties".
I thought the rule for French grammar was, choose the male gender when the gender is unknown...l don't want to support patriarchy. I do want to get my grammar straight. Thanks!
I don't understand why "depuis" is used here despite the fact that we use "depuis" for ongoing actions as stated in the lesson below.
Using the present tense (Le Présent) - and not the compound past (Le Passé Composé) - in sentences with "depuis" (since/for) in French (French Prepositions of Time)
Why is ‘en avance’ preferred over ‘à l’avance’ in the sentence ‘Heureusement qu'on n'avait pas acheté les places en avance !´ I am thinking of the exercise about the catacombs visit where ´Cédric had even called them beforehand´ is translated ´Cédric les a même appelés à l’avance - which is surely the same idea?
Hello,
I know that the reflexive verb introduction is in the A1 level but, when should one learn about the passive and subjective pronominals?
Thanks
Nicole
Does this rule only apply to verbs that use être as an auxiliary? Meaning that any verbs that use avoir as an auxiliary wouldn't abide by this rule.
Why is there no de with this sentence? J'espère ne pas faire d'erreurs.
I hope not to make a mistake.Find your French level for FREE
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