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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert French teachers
14,950 questions • 32,444 answers • 1,016,349 learners
Mornin Francophiles. I don't quite understand the final sentence 'ça en valait vraiment la peine'. Why is the 'en' pronoun required?
Thanks.
Megan
What is wrong with this?
Non, Patrice ne joue plus au football_____. No, Patrice doesn't play football any more.The examples:
1. J’ai besoin d’aller faire les courses avant le dîner and
2. Je dois aller faire les courses avant dîner
I understand that in 1. the noun is used and in 2. the verb but in 2. could you also say
Je dois aller faire les courses avant le dîner ?
I’m asking because my mind translates 2. as - i need to go shopping before dining.
I've found this lesson quite difficult! The first set of examples ("Look at ..."), and most of the rest, sound very odd in English, and it's only Gruff's answer from five years ago that makes it clear that the phrase or sentence would not normally stand alone. Could more (or all) of the examples be made to make this clear? Also, in the first couple of examples (where there is an introductory sentence), the English translation is "... must have ..." and everywhere else it's "... will have ...". I think that the 'must' is wrong, but it's at least confusing! Hoping to help ...
PS
I now see that a similar discussion about contextual examples has taken place and been acted upon in the companion lesson (on irregular participles).
My daughter had a quiz where she got « Pierre et tu allez au parc » wrong because it should have been Pierre et tu vas au parc. I am struggling to explain this. Is there a rule or an exception?
In “Et il arrive trop souvent que les enclos soient trop étroits pour leurs occupants.” What triggers the subjunctive? Should I consider “il arrive que” to trigger it as a general rule?
I keep making the mistake of dropping "Ne" on this one because I watch a lot of policiers, and when the cops burst into a room they always shout "Bougez pas !" Note to self: don't model your grammar on TV cops.
Why "la tentation a été trop forte" and not "la tentation était trop forte" or "la tentation avait été trop forte". Or do the translators usually use "was" for "has been". Is this an English phenomenon, as "was" is the "past of the past" ?
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