French language Q&A Forum

In the audio for "Quand partent-ils" I hear partetil, I thought it would sound more like par til

Merci

My comment relates to English rather than French usage in that I think some non-native English speakers may be confused by the sentence in the second example you give. "Sarah didn't use to trust Thomas" The past participle of "to use" in this case is "used " not "use" although it may be that common America English practice may differ. You could employ "use" to say that "I didn't use the books you suggested" but you would need "used" in front of an infinitive such as "I used to live in London" or "I used to trust you". I refer you to Fowler's Modern English Usage 2nd Ed. p670 where it is pointed out that the modern expression "he used to" replaces an arcane "he uses to". Just to point out that English can be just as exacting as French. Cordialement. K

Paul should have left earlier is given as 'Paul aurait du partir plus tot'.

I could have learnt to swim is given as 'J'aurais pu apprendre a nager'

These are exactly the same constructions, therefore they can not both be correct.

(Apologies for the absence of diacritic marks)

It seems to be that "Emilie et toi" = "vous," you plural => 2nd person plural verb.

But the right answer was a third person plural verb.

Why is the answer "We will make a cake in a bit" and not "We are going to make a cake in a bit"? I can't see a meaningful difference between the 2 options in English.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Cécile, this question (see link below) has been asked and received no answer. Can you shed some light on it?

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/questions/view/why-is-the-subjonctive-not-used-in-the-phrase-il-ne-pense-pas-qu-il-sera-la-a-temps-i-thought-penser