French language Q&A Forum

Where is the “Jargon Busters” referred to in the top of the lesson?

One line has an answer of “C'est l'un des plus anciens lieux de culte du pays.”

and then also of “C'est un des plus anciens lieux de culte du pays.”

But the audio is “c’est l’un”, not “c’est un”, so I guess the second answer shouldn’t appear as an option, even if it’s a grammatically correct alternative. 

Not a big issue, but I thought I’d mention it.

Just wondering if "le repas du midi" is indeed correct for the midday meal? (I thought that it was "le repas de midi", but maybe they are both correct?)

Why is there a direct object pronoun in this sentence, "je poserai autant de vacances que je le pourrai"? What does "le" refer to here? Can you say, "je poserai autant de vacances que je pourrai"?

j'ai commencé à voir quelques petits boutons

Why is there passe compose and not l'imperfait? 

Hi,

I see here that assez is used to mean "not enough", but doesn't it also mean "that much"? 

Ils n'ont pas assez d'argent. -> Couldn't it also mean that they don't have that much money? Not with the implication that is not enough for a specific purpose, but rather not that much in general.

How to tell them apart?

I think faire faire and se faire + infinitif are quite hard for English speakers to get their heads round. Is there a reason that only one of the examples is in the present tense?  Even that one is ambiguous (ils se font couper les cheveux - could be they’re getting their hair cut as we speak or are just about to).

Is there a way to possibly include more nationalities

Hello All.

I was reviewing pronouns using this page:

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indirect-objects-2/

It mentions using the adverbial pronoun "y" and then gives an example:

I thought that "y" could only be used to reference an inanimate object, not a person.

Are there special cases? What am I missing here?

Thank You in advance.

Bob

Now, l just have to read Les Fleurs du Mal. So inspiring. The bohemian in me recognizes that in Baudelaire. 

As we encounter these amazing writers, it strikes me that it would be useful to learn the use of the passé simple and the passé antérieur and possibly other now more literary tenses in the subjonctif.  I realize that most people don't speak that way anymore. Yet l wonder, if l were to read Baudelaire, might l  not encounter those tenses? 

Another current example: l listen to France Inter. They recently aired a fabulous 8 part podcast on Simone de Beauvoir. So l am now reading Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, which is liberally sprinkled with the Passé simple and Passé antérieur. So no sweat, l figure it out; the vocabulary she uses is actually more challenging than her tenses. So here is a woman writing in 1958 who is very current today in fact, when it comes to feminism, she is still central source material. Thanks for considering this suggestion.

PS: The funniest thing! After first writing this l  took a study plan test in which 4 out of 10 questions required the passé simple! So my information that you do not teach such tenses is clearly wrong ... or out-dated. Please feel free to not respond to my suggestion if my basic assumptions are wrong 😀