French language Q&A Forum

Because "gens" is "people" - plural - I put "...les gens qui sortent constamment leurs portables de leurs poches". Is there anything in the pronuncation that I missed that showed it was definitely singular? Or is it a rule in french that you would always say "they took their phone from their pocket" unless they all owned several phones and were taking them out of more than one pocket each? Or...was my answer plausibly a correct hearing?

What is the meaning of:

S.M.C.?

when referring to the Duc d'Orleans

Why do you use translations in the full text playback that are not the translations said to be the best when providing feedback on the student-submitted translations?  Are they perhaps the ones used most by native speakers.

il raconte une histoire à mon ami- il lui en raconte (or it should be  il la lui raconte"?) if it's 2d option, could you please explain why? thank you!

What's the origin of se recueillir as a verb for "to meditate"? It seems so different than the verb recueillir meaning "to note" or "to collect". If one wants to say one is practicing meditation should one use se recueillir or méditer ?

Hi Kwizik

I am a Premium member and really enjoy the Kwizik model of learning, but I also use a number of other apps, books and websites to study French.  I also use 2 or 3 Translators to verify my study before committing “pen to paper” but I am getting a bit frustrated with being marked down in Kwizik, when I have picked different phrases from the recognized and popular translators (Reverso, Google, sometimes DeepL).     The latest exercise is  “a day in my cat Max’s Life.   

EG.  donner un câlin or faire un câlin?  I chose donner - Kwizik said wrong, should be faire.

EG.  Nourriture sèche pour chats or aliments secs pour chats - Kwizik said wrong, should be croquettes.  

These are just a couple of examples, but I have many more.

My question is therefore, can Kwizik please suggest the best translator app to use, one Kwizik recommends, which will give us the best information so we get things right.  Everyone uses translators so it would be handy to have that information.

I look forward to hearing back from you.  Thanks - Jo

I am wondering why it is not "toute" in the second sentence since it would seem to refer to "la rentrée" which is feminine.

I am aware that this has been discussed before but it is clear to me that in certain cases “passer une année” can be used.

For example, on the web page https://acupoffrench.com/french-grammar/an-vs-annee-2/, which also explains when to use “an” or “année”, there is the following example with passer and année used to stress the duration:

“Elle a passé quatre années à chercher un travail.”

So I think it would not hurt to explicitly mention this possibility to use année instead of an to stress the duration. 

For the general case (not just related to passer), I think the rule from “Advanced French Grammar”/Monique L’Huillier section 5.2.1 an/année is clearer than the “time unit” vs “duration” distinction: “an usually follows cardinal numbers, whilst année follows ordinal numbers, or an indefinite or demonstrative adjective”.

This rule does not hold for jour/journée, soir/soirée and matin/matinée and these cases  are treated separately in the book.

This rule is then followed up in the book with “If the year is modified in any way, “année” should be used” with the following examples.

“J’ai vécu à Londres pendant cinq ans.”

”J’ai gardé un très bon souvenir de mes cinq années à Londres.”

At a minimum, it seems like there should be a conjunction or a que to better structure the sentence.

Anyway, can someone translate/explain this sentence?