J'ai deux questions:

N. Hilary (Shamrockhill) W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

J'ai deux questions:

Quand j'ai recherche "French-Canadian" dans le dictionnaire, (Collins- online), j'ai trouve: "Canadienne-Francaise". Peut-etre l'allusion aurait ete, "from Quebec" ou "Quebecois" ?

J'ai ecrit, "...elle peut chanter". Est-ce que cette phrase est aussi bonne que "...elle sait chanter" ? Je dois dire que je trouve que c'est une belle phrase: "...elle sait chanter" !

Asked 2 years ago
CélineNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour N. Hilary,

- "French-Canadian" has been amended to "Quebecois" as other users wrote in with the same query as yourself. ;-)

"elle peut chanter" means "she has the ability to do it (but doesn't necessarily know how to)" whilst "elle sait chanter" means "she can sing (and has learnt how to)". You will tend to use "savoir + [verb]" when you mean the latter as a skill - See link here: Je sais le faire

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

CélineNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour G,

Having talked about "peut / sait tout jouer" with the language team, we agreed that when talking about a skill, using "sait" (savoir) is the safe option. So we agree with your first choice! “Sait tout jouer” is now the best option although “peut tout jouer” is still accepted.

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Fiona W.A2Kwiziq community member

I agree with you. I made the same 2 "mistakes".

G B.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Talking about the difference between using peut and sait, I wrote:

elle sait tout jouer and was corrected to elle peut tout jouer. Why is the first sentence wrong ?

N. Hilary (Shamrockhill) W. asked:

J'ai deux questions:

Quand j'ai recherche "French-Canadian" dans le dictionnaire, (Collins- online), j'ai trouve: "Canadienne-Francaise". Peut-etre l'allusion aurait ete, "from Quebec" ou "Quebecois" ?

J'ai ecrit, "...elle peut chanter". Est-ce que cette phrase est aussi bonne que "...elle sait chanter" ? Je dois dire que je trouve que c'est une belle phrase: "...elle sait chanter" !

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