French language Q&A Forum

Hi, with regard to:

“when suddenly, an enormous sawshark swam above their heads!”

Half of the answers are of the type:

“quand soudain, un requin-scie énorme est passé au-dessus de leur tête !”

This set is in a format that I’ve encountered many times. 

The other half are of the type:

“lorsque soudain, un requin scie énorme leur est passé au-dessus de la tête !”

This set is outside of my grammatical experience. I’m okay with the “leur tête/la tête” difference, as I’ve learned that in French we don’t always use the possessive “leur”, and can use a definite article such as “la”, especially when the owner of the body part is obvious. But could you explain why in these “la tête” answers a “leur” has appeared in each case earlier in the sentence. Is this early “leur” necessary in order to change “leur tête” to “la tête”? How can we consider this early “leur” to connect to the later “tête” when it is separated from it so much?

This exercise was a good learning experience.

Would "... dans un tel chic restaurant ?" work as well ?

Also, I wrote: "Il se revele que son pere est le gerant de ce restaurant." rather than, "il s'avere que..." 

According to Collins, "ll s'est revele que..." = "It turned out that..."; 

and, "s'averer" = "to prove to be"

"Ce veloute de champignons semble divin." Is using, "semble" in place of "a l'air" equally acceptable?

New Vocabulary:

How did I not know that "un tourte" is for a vegetable pie, (une tarte for a fruit pie)? But, there it is!  And, now I know. Merci !

Couldn't find "pithviers" anywhere so assume it is another word for "un tourtre"

"perdrix" and "perveau"  "Un pithiviers de perdreau" sounds like it is right out of a nursery rhyme!

Je vous remercie pour cet exercice, et maintenant j'ai l'eau a la bouche !

I searched quinze heures et quart on Google Search, and found that it is acceptable, however my answer was reported wrong. Please let me know if I have done something wrong, and I appreciate your efforts? Thank you.

I believe that “I arrived the day he left” refers to a non-specific timeframe and therefore should use the feminine form, but it was marked wrong on my test and the masculine “la jour” was said to be correct instead. Can someone explain to me why this would be the case, or if it’s an error?

Hi! Thanks for the exercise! The audio for ¨traverse le village¨ sounds very much like ¨traverse sur le village¨ - or maybe it just sounds like that to me.

Also, the ¨le maire¨ hint, I think, belongs on the audio section before where it is currently located.

Really don't understand why the waterpolo is faire du versus jouer au. There is a ball involved, n'est pas?

Is it okay to not add anything after "sans" in this sentence: "je ne sais pas ce qu'on aurait fait sans"? I translated it as "sans elle" (elle = la piscine).

In the final sentence, I used "refroidir" instead of "rafraîchir." Is there a difference between the two?

Also for the final sentence, just wondering why "les prochains jours" isn't accepted?

My translate app keeps correcting un évènement to un événement. I used the latter in this exercise and the result was that my answer matched, when it did not. Please explain which is correct. Thank you.

I wront

qui s'asseyeront ensuite...Is it fine?

Merci