French language Q&A Forum

Hello,

I am having trouble understanding why "Ils se sont parlé hier soir au téléphone." is the correct orthography.

Bescherelle explains that there are three cases (https://www.bescherelle.com/faq/comment-accorder-le-participe-passe-dun-verbe-pronominal/):

1. Lorsque le verbe est essentiellement pronominal (c’est-à-dire qu’il se construit toujours avec un pronom réfléchi), le participe passé s’accorde avec le sujet.

2. Lorsque le verbe est occasionnellement pronominal, le participe passé s’accorde avec le COD si celui-ci est placé avant le verbe.

3. Il ne s’accorde pas s’il n’y a pas de COD ou si celui-ci est placé après le verbe.

Obviously case 1 does not apply because parler normally takes a direct object. But everyone seems to put "Ils se sont parlé" into case three. How is "se" not the direct object? They're talking to each other. Why is it "Ils se sont brûlés." but "Ils se sont parlé."? These two seem like they should be in the same category to me. Is it just that "se parler" is a special case, or am I completely misunderstanding?

Sorry if this was already answered somewhere but I haven't found it in my searches if so.

Thank you for your help.

When looking around on the internet, it seems like "Retourner" is used here and there, both informal on message boards and formal on shopping sites (for example H&M website: "POUR RETOURNER UN ACHAT EN LIGNE"), for indicating returning an item.

Could you elaborate on this and why you write "Retourner never means to return (something) in the context of a shop for example." ?

Hope you have a nice day
I still don't understand that when you will  you change the   first é of the verb or the second é becomes è , because when i read your examples i saw: préfère, répèter ,celébrate ,élève,.... Thank you

I thought this was "je recommanderais" - "which I would recommend" - rather than "which I will recommend".

Two questions: 

1) In this context, would the French always say "I will recommend" rather than " I would recommend"?

2) If not, is there any way of detecting the difference, aurally, between first person in the future and in the conditional ?

Pourquoi dit on ce n'est pas au lieu de dire elle n'est pas une voiture électrique ?

Merci 

Why is it not "doucemment" with a double "m"?

Hello, perhaps i missed this/am not understandng something: is there a rule for en versus de usage? eg une robe de satin or une robe en satin? 

Hello. Is it really possible to find out, which tense i should use, if i only see this first part of the sentence, without knowing whats following?

When we arrived in the changing rooms,

Hi,  my kwizbot it is telling my that in this example,”Cette maison est bien. - Oui, elle est ________ l'autre.” 

the correct answe is “mieux.” Why? Doesn’t mieux modify a verb? Here were modifying a noun (maison), so it should be “meilleur” by all logic, so why is the correct answer “mieux”? 

In the sentence 'I'll call you before leaving' (future) in the quizzes, it seems to be translated in the present tense..' Je t'appelle avant de partir'. Is this a colloquialism ?

Thanks