French language Q&A Forum

Dear Aurelie and team

Just wondering if this phrase is supposed to be " et ce n'est pas du tout"  I think the "du" is missing in the original.

Sincerely

Una

The sentence for translation was: "help clearing the table after eating."  I wrote "après avoir mangé" for "after eating" and this was marked wrong.  They wanted "après manger".  Can anyone help me understand why "après avoir mangé"   is wrong?

With respect, I think that this lesson fails to make a clear distinction between the many different ways of using "to miss" and "missing" in English and "manquer" and "rater" in French. I suggest that the lesson be broken down and recreated as several lessons, each with a clear learning objective. 

C'est un village en France

C'est un petit village de France. Can someone please tell me why "de" is needed in the 2nd sentence (instead of en)?

I'm not sure where to put these questions.  I did read the discussion about Darbeinet's text, which gives examples of measurements.  Three examples used avoir and one used être.  It did not use faire.  (I am not familiar with Darbeinet, just trying to make sense of the discussions.)

The answer was "that Darbeinet's text is a bit out of date and to native speakers (members of the language team and relatives ;-) ), 'faire' is definitely the verb to use here."

The example that used être (from Darbeinet) was "Ce bâtiment est long de trente mètres." I don't see how this differs in construction from "La porte est large d'un mètre", one of two correct answers in a Kwiz.  

So être is out of date?  But we are being taught être  as well as faire? Quoi?

Of the three examples using avoir (from Darbeinet) one is "Ce bâtiment a trente mètres de long."  Larousse online has the example "ici la rivière a 2 km de large--  here the river is 2 km wide".  (in definition of large) Those two examples seem similar to each other in construction.

A question about "Ce gouffre a trente mètres de profondeur" from a month ago was answered with ---

/Bonjour Tecla,

This question has already been discussed : "faire" is definitely the verb to use./

So, Larousse, also, is wrong/out of date in using avoir as the verb here?  

I am truly confused.  Reading the linked discussion was part of that confusion. 

As 'they' say, halp!

Really? No native English speaker would ever say this. One might say "After I did my homework, I went for a walk" but that doesn't mean what I think the question writer is after.

Having had to do something is a state of being, not something after which one takes a walk. Consider a work around to what is said: "After being in a position where I was required to do my homework, I took a walk." Weird, awkward, unidiomatic, and just strange. If this question was written by a native English speaker, it was surely in pursuit of teaching the plupurfect of devoir, which I never hear in conversation. It is something taught but in my experience never used and really never needed. Apparently, whatever exists on the conjugation chart has to be worked into a question....

When I took French in 60s, the pluperfect of devoir was translated as "must have", but I only hear the passe compose in cases where the pluperfect might have worked. Again, I never hear this said and rarely written.

Anyway you look at it, devoir in the past is a condition - not something that happens before something else happens.  So no more is needed than the passe compose IMO.....

Isn't "jour" masculine.  So why is it "derniere"

In the last sentence, "nous nous écrions : "Bonne Année !", why is the verb reflexive, or, why is the second nous, needed?

In the stage-by-stage part of this exercise (i.e. not the text round-up right at the end) the option of “célèbrera” is shown twice. However, my resources (ReversoConjugation & conjugation-fr.com) list “célébrera” as the only possible option. Is it true that “célèbrera” is a valid conjugation?

I use to play golf with my grandfather