French language Q&A Forum

For I haven't stopped all day..., shouldn't one say, "Je n'ai pas m'arrêté une minute...  (i.e., i haven't stopped myself). Isn't arrêter alone mean arrêter + qqch ? Or in the case it is implying "Je n'ai pas m'arrête (+faire qqch) so the reflexive is not used. 

Also in French is there a way to distinguish: 1) We are all keeping our fingers crossed, and 2) We are keeping all our fingers crossed? (or in general: We are all selling our qqch vs. We are selling all of our qqch where qqch is a masculine noun? ). 

This is a question of the usage of French definite article “le”. I have encountered following two French sentences:

(1)  Il faut que vous puissiez parler français avant d’aller en France.

(2)  Pour apprandre le français, il faut que vous regardiez des films français.

As can be seen from these two sentences, you can notice that the phrase “ …parler français…”in the sentence (1) appears without the French definite article of “le”, but that the phrase “…apprandre le français…” in the sentence (2) appears with the French definite article of “le”.

Why doesn’t the definite article of “le” need in the sentence (1)?  And why does the definite article of “le” need in the sentence (2)?

This is the original sentence. Il pourra bientôt parler russe

But are the following two also correct?

Il pourra parler russe bientôt

Il pourra parler bientôt russe

if jamais means never, then what does pas means??

Bonjour Madame Cécile !

The verb “éviter” as was asked in a quiz stated-

Oui, évitons-.......... une situation embarrassante !

(Yes, let’s avoid them an awkward situation !)

The accepted answer stated - leur as opposed to les (answered by me)

So is it that the correct expression is-

Éviter à quelqu’un -> To avoid someone ? (Indirect object pronouns)

And then about things, would one say-

Éviter quelque chose -> To avoid something ? (Direct Object Pronouns)

Merci pour votre réponse!

Cordialement, Shrey.

In the above question the answer is cela,. Can it is alternatively written as " je le lui ai promis "

So, in all literal senses, the way to further describe an item's purpose is to pair it with the action being done with/upon it. ( i.e. une planche à voile = a [  plank ] to be flown [ surf ] upon ) That is odd to say the least, but French grammar seems to be very similar to archaic English grammar. I suppose the Norman invasion is to blame for that, n'est-ce pas? When the aristocracy speak one language, and the peasants speak another, I suppose they found a nice halfway point between the two, which then evolved into modern English, a confusing tangle of rules, exceptions, and counterrules, all presided over by 5+ official institutions. 

 French is much nicer. The rules are odd, but fairly consistent. It is managed by the Àcadémie Française , and no other, has considerably less mixing, and is only truly messed up in Créole French [ The pitiful excuse for French the people of Louisiana speak ]. So even if I had to traverse the entire french-speaking world, I would find little more than dialect ( i.e. Quebècoise, Guiyanaise, Walloon, Langues d'Occitan et d'Oeil . ) Bíen faites, francophones!

Can other B1 or B2 level students follow it without reading the transcript?

The system says the above phrase translates to 'How did she get it wrong?' - but I couldn't work out where the 'it' is. I thought it might mean 'How did she go wrong?' then checked Google Translate, which confirmed my interpretation.

Could this please be checked? Thanks (loving the site by the way)

Pauline