"Can I" and "may I" in EnglishBonjour,
I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below. However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal. More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).
The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity). One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ". To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite. I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)
Love Lawless French, by the way,
Alice
"In the case of pouvoir, note that je peux becomes irregular in the inverted form: puis-je, in order to ease pronunciation.
This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"
Bonjour,
I certainly do not know enough of French culture and language to discuss your explanation of French usage, below. However, I disagree that in English, the difference between "may I" and "can I" is that "may I" is more formal. More accurately, "can I" may be informal and in common usage, yes, but it is also often considered abrupt and somewhat impolite, and this is not only by grammar nerds (or oldies) such as I (or grammar nerds like me, to use more idiomatic speech, ha ha).
The grammatical distinctions are obvious, of course ("can" denoting capacity or ability, "may" is conditional, one is granted capacity). One hears often, when someone is ordering in a cafe or bar, "can I get a... ". To many English-speakers, this is grating and impolite. I, for one, hope that "may I have...", does not go out of idiomatic usage (though perhaps that battle is lost and I am just raving...)
Love Lawless French, by the way,
Alice
"In the case of pouvoir, note that je peux becomes irregular in the inverted form: puis-je, in order to ease pronunciation.This structure is very formal as we stated before, and is usually used to sound particularly polite or even a bit affected: the nearest English equivalent would be to use May I...?"
'I share my apartment with five people, including one girl.'
I realise the lesson is about 'dont', but could one use 'compris' or 'y compris' instead of dont? If so, which, and would compris need an e because the girl is feminine?
I was doing an Alevel french translation and encountered this. I could guess the meaning ‘24 free services are offered’ but I don’t get why the word order is like this.
Sont proposés 24 services gratuits, dont la recharge du téléphone et une coupe de cheveux.I have returned to A0 as part of my revision programme and are still puzzled by the following-
What is the Pantheon? My answer was
Marked incorrect.
However I notice in 'Lawless French' (which I understand is 'related' to Kwiz)
Quel + être
Quel est … ? means "what is … ?"Quels sont … ? means "what are … ?"Par exemple…
Quelle est la solution ? What’s the solution?Quels sont les cours les plus intéressants?I apreciate the lesson is on Qu'est-ce que, but why is my answer wrong? What are the most interesting classes?
I used "faire du camping", which is good French and comes straight from le grand Robert. Why was this rejected?
How do you use 'à quoi' et 'dont' compared to the other terms ? Merci
Line 9: The audio says "effeuillez d'abord les fleurs,"
.......but d'abord is crossed out as incorrect by kwiziq in my written response.
Why is the plural form of "complimenter" used in this sentence?
In the summary translation at the end of the exercise, you propose 'elle ne cachait plus sa bouche' as opposed to 'la' bouche previously in Kwizbot's answer. Is this difference sometimes a matter of personal preference?
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