French language Q&A Forum

Rex reminds Anna of her dog.

Rex rappelle son chien à Anna.

The English sentence nearly made my head explode :-), it seems really ambiguous to me. In this example it's slightly clearer because Rex and Anna are different sexes, but if you wrote:

Rex reminds Chris of his dog.

Rex rappelle son chien à Chris.

it becomes really ambiguous. I imagine it would be said by someone (say Bob) talking about about three other parties (Rex, Chris and a dog). It would be clearer if there was more context as to who or what Rex, Chris and the dog were, but as it stands it can be interpreted multiple ways. It's unclear to me if the dog belongs to Rex or Chris, and the meaning changes depending on whether Rex is a dog or a person. The sentence needs a bit more context to try and remove the ambiguity e.g.:

Bob said that his dog Rex reminds Chris of his dog.

It seems the French is less ambiguous in this case, and you need to be careful with translating the French into English.

Whilst not specific to this lesson - there are lot of references in these lessons to language choices that are "more elegant" than another.  Is this just another way of saying "more formal", or do the French have a specific desire or appreciation for elegant language?  In English we would never describe our language choices as one way being more elegant than another.  I'm just curious!

Isn’t there a way to imply each/every another way?: je mange une pomme le matin, ou je me promène le soir. 

According to the above rule, each/every month should only be chaque mois, since "chaque" goes with a singular noun, and "tous les" goes with a plural noun.  How is "mois" plural?  Just because it has an "s" at the end?  Very confusing.  Please help!

if it start with y is it will be mon or ma

Way too fast to understand! 

Hi there,

can anybody help with why que appears in the following sentence, please? "Tu dormiras dans le meme hotel que la derniere fois".  The translation I have is "will you sleep in the same hotel as last time".  I've not come across que as a translation for 'as' before.

Thanks in advance.

Kieran.  

Hi 

I am looking for a lesson which explains how in reflexive verbs in passe compose the past participle does not agree in gender and number with the subject if the object is indirect. 

Help me plsssss

If 'Je suis monté en voiture' means 'I got into the car', how does one say (if visiting someone on a hill and they asks how you got there) 'I came up by car ?
Surely that is also 'Je suis monté en voiture'.....