I don't understand why my answer "vous aurez pu y arriver d'ici là" is wrong in the test.

Lycka T.C1Kwiziq community member

I don't understand why my answer "vous aurez pu y arriver d'ici là" is wrong in the test.

Asked 6 years ago
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Maybe I am missing something but I don't see anything wrong offhand with the sentence either. Can you post the entire question? Maybe you had a typo? -- Chris (not a native speaker).
David S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I agree. I had the same answer as Lycka and it was marked incorrect.

Question: Vous ___ arriver d'ici là (You will have been able to get there by then)

My answer: aurez pu y

Kwiziq answer: aurez pu

But the Kwiziq answer does not translate the word "there". The word "là" is part of the idiom for "by then".

The Kwiziq answer means : You will have been able to arrive by then.

Bruce R.C1Kwiziq community member

Frustratingly, I see that people have been getting this marked as incorrect in exactly the same way for two years now, and there is no explanation as to why. I also answered "vous aurez pu y arriver d'ici là" and was marked wrong. There was no typo in my answer. Just the addition of "y" made the answer wrong.

AurélieNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Bonjour à tous !

Indeed, I can understand the confusion here :)
First, know that when we ask conjugation questions, we will never expect extra words to be added, but always focus our testing on the very conjugation point.
Here, this is about the difference between "arriver à [faire]" (to manage to [do]) and "arriver [quelque part]" (to get somewhere). In French, you could technically use "y" in both cases, but, I think probably in order to avoid confusion, you will only use "y" with the first meaning (to manage), and use "là" or "là-bas" with the location "arriver". 

Therefore, "aura pu y arriver" always mean "will have been able to manage it"; "arriver là-bas" could be considered as correct here, but "arriver" in French can be used on its own to say "to get there", the "there" being implied.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !  

David S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Thank you Aurélie. Your explanation is very clear as to the reasons.

And now I can can see why even Google Translate makes the same distinction:

Right:

"Vous aurez pu arriver d'ici là" : You could have arrived by then.

"Vous aurez pu arriver la-bas d'ici là" : You could have made it there by then

Wrong:

"Vous aurez pu y arriver d'ici là" : You could have done it by then.

Lycka T. asked:

I don't understand why my answer "vous aurez pu y arriver d'ici là" is wrong in the test.

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