French language Q&A Forum

The preposition malgré is closer to despite, whereas the expression en dépit de is closer to in spite of.

I found this sentence a bit confusing as the pairs of words are described as interchangeable (and certainly are in English, apart from despite being a bit more formal) - does that "closer to" just mean that one of the pair is a single word and the other a prepositional phrase?

Hi Kwiziq, please consider not breaking up full sentences. It makes it harder to figure out what's being said because we would have forgotten the context/previous phrase in the sentence/statement. Thank you.  N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AVN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/AN/A N/A N/A

I answered with the second one, and after much thought, not the first. I asked a french speaking friend and she said the first sounded odd and she would not use it, although she didn't think it was wrong. Can you provide some guidelines?

Thanks

Dans la phrase "Mais s'il vient du Québec, d'Alberta ou de Manitoba par exemple...", on utilise du Québec mais d’Alberta, au lieu de de l’Alberta et aussi de Manitoba au lieu de de la Maintoba.   Ça semble un peu contradictoire.   Pouvez-vous me l’expliquer ?   Merci, en avance. 

I'm confused about the difference between "les jours derniers" vs. "les derniers jours".

In the lesson, "les jours derniers" is translated as "these last days" while "les derniers jours" is translated as "these past few days." I'm having a hard time seeing the distinction. 

In English I think I'd be more likely to vocalise 2+2 = 4 as "two plus two is four" than either "equals" or "makes".  Would saying "deux plus deux est quatre" sound odd in French?

Why is it faire de l’Akido and not du?

Hi. I understand that one could say "Je donne les requins à Anne" (i.e. "I am giving the sharks to Anne...imagine that Anne is a marine biologist) or "Je les donne à Anne" (i.e. I am giving them to Anne) or Je les lui donne" (i.e. I am giving them to her). However, how would one say "I am giving Anne to the sharks" (imagine that Anne has upset the local mafia) using a double pronoun (i.e. "I am giving her to them"? Presumably, one cannot say "Je lui les donne" (because it would violate the rules on the order of pronouns)? What about "Je y lui donne"? Any help gratefully received.

Is there a difference in meaning between "il devait faire qqc" and "il aurait dû faire qqc"?  

Why do we use j'ai toujours eu for "I have always had"?  My understanding is the passe' compose' of avoir implies "I got" more than "I had".  If we want to say "I had" we should use j'avais.