PLURAL OR SINGULAR with Ainsi que.There seems to be a bit of discrepancy in the lessons, the exercises, and a response to a question in the discussions.
a)First the response in the discussion... where Ainsi que starts the sentence, it seems to make the verb straight forward.
Ainsi que l'italien et l'espagnol, le Français dérive du latin. Very unambiguous that the 'the french' is the singular subject of the verb dériver.
b)The answers to the 'test recommended' provided me.
Les Etats-Unis, ainsi que l'Angleterre, sont un pays anglophone. Here the verb is 'plural BECAUSE the subject is The United States, but the associate nouns and adjectives are singular because it is ONE COUNTRY. Ok so far I think.
c) But in the discussion.
Le français ainsi que l'italien dérivent du latin ( French and Italian) hence a plural verb.
vs
"L'Angleterre, ainsi que la France, a combattu l'Allemagne en 1914." in the lesson.
Shouldn't the verb be 'ont combattu' . And if so maybe a short comment re the gender and plurality of the verb be added to the lesson.
Shouldn’t the participle agree with the preceding object? Or is it only a direct object?
The group à + [people] becomes simply their matching indirect pronoun, as follows:
Don’t certain verbs require a tonic (stress) pronoun after à, rather than the indirect object pronoun before the verb ?
For example - "Je pense à vous" "Tu dois faire attention à lui"
By GDP La Californie as of 2018 is 50% richer than Le Texas. (Probably why so many French people live in L.A.!)
By median income Le Texas doesn't even make the Top 10. The top 3 are 1. Le New Hampshire 2. Le Minnesota 3. Le Hawaii.
Just thought you would like to know ... :- )
Walter B.
This was a sentence in the lesson: Ce soir-là, quelque chose d'extraordinaire se produisit.
Why is it not "quelque chose extraordinaire"? Why is it "d'extraordinaire?"
Thanks for the explanation!
e.g.) not only is it sweet, it's also sour!
Why is it des and not les? Could you point me towards the lesson that explains this?
There seems to be a bit of discrepancy in the lessons, the exercises, and a response to a question in the discussions.
a)First the response in the discussion... where Ainsi que starts the sentence, it seems to make the verb straight forward.
Ainsi que l'italien et l'espagnol, le Français dérive du latin. Very unambiguous that the 'the french' is the singular subject of the verb dériver.
b)The answers to the 'test recommended' provided me.
Les Etats-Unis, ainsi que l'Angleterre, sont un pays anglophone. Here the verb is 'plural BECAUSE the subject is The United States, but the associate nouns and adjectives are singular because it is ONE COUNTRY. Ok so far I think.
c) But in the discussion.
Le français ainsi que l'italien dérivent du latin ( French and Italian) hence a plural verb.
vs
"L'Angleterre, ainsi que la France, a combattu l'Allemagne en 1914." in the lesson.
Shouldn't the verb be 'ont combattu' . And if so maybe a short comment re the gender and plurality of the verb be added to the lesson.
"Il devrait encore être sous garantie." "Il devrait toujours être sous garantie." This exercise uses "encore" exclusively here, but I was wondering if this was an example of a case where "encore" and "toujours" could be used interchangeably to mean "still"? It is a hard concept to grasp because of the other meanings of these 2 words, and one I just can't seem to get right. For example, could "Il devrait encore être sous garantie" have 2 possible meanings depending on context i.e. "It should (still or again) be under warranty", and could "Il devrait toujours être sous garantie" also have 2 possible meanings i.e. "It should (still or always) be under warranty" ?
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