French language Q&A Forum

(Alice répondit, plutôt timidement, “Je-Je ne sais pas vraiment, Monsieur, en ce moment précis - tout du moins je sais qui j'ÉTAIS quand je me suis levée ce matin, mais j'ai bien dû changer plusieurs fois depuis.”)

In paragraph two of the transcript this sentence: 'Matisse rompt avec les règles...' is translated in the pop-up as 'Matisse broke the rules..' I assume this is a fixed construction? Is that exactly what it means or does it mean (as the French indicates with 'avec) that he broke with the accepted rules of the day. In English 'broke the rules' and 'broke with the rules' are not identical. I'm trying to find out if this is the case in French as well. Thanks.

Normally, I think of using the preposition "à " when referring to a city.  In this passage, they land in (à) Paris but they take the train to (pour) Florence.  I am guessing that Florence is not an exception as a city but rather one takes the train for or to a city using the preposition, pour, instead of à.  Is that correct?

For those interested (and who couldn't find the word "tramontagne" anywhere), here is a definition for a similarly spelled word that I found : "La tramontane est un vent violent, froid (en température ressentie) et sec en provenance du nord-ouest qui souffle contre les Pyrénées et au sud du Massif central, puis dans le Languedoc et le Roussillon. ... Le terme de « tramontane » vient du latin transmontanus qui signifie « au-delà des monts »". So it's similar to the Mistral wind (also mentioned in the same sentence in the exercise), with the Mistral being maybe a bit more localised and severe.

In an earlier lesson, we learned that for normal verbs, inversion is usually too formal. People usually say the sentence with an upward inflection or use Est-ce que.

Is that not so in the case of reflexive verbs?

My answer is milliers d'
but somehow its not correct. It should be mille.

deux mille euros
deux milliers d'euros

both are correct, right? How come my answer is right?

Hi Dear Folk,

Do you how to say, "the very benefits"  in French?

Of the bellow translation, which is the appopriate translation of "According to the 2017 State of American Vacation study"?

Selon l’étude sur l’état des vacances aux États-Unis de 2017 or Selon l'étude menée en 2017 sur l'état des vacances en Amérique.

This seems to be a repeated question which I have yet to find a clear answer to.  Jaques est descendu du haricot magique is translated as Jaques got off the magic bean and not came down the magic bean.  However, looking at my bilingual dictionary (Le Grand Robert Collins), under the entry for descendre as an intransitive verb is included "descendre de l'échelle" translated as "to come down the ladder".   This seems to be contradicting the information given here and I would be grateful for further comment

Hello,

How does one know how to conjugate pronouncements like "Vive les fiancés"? My first instinct is that vivre should use the third person plural of le subjonctif here, because les fiancés is third person plural. However, is it "vive" instead of "vivent" because it is a fixed expression? Any more examples or fiches pédagogiques would be helpful, thanks!