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More manquer confusion
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More manquer confusion
If I'm reading the lesson correctly, "je manque" has to be followed by "de" in this context, so you can't say "je manque deux euros". I don't believe you can say "je manque de deux euros" either. That's far from obvious though, since I think you can say "j'ai besoin de deux euros". But "manquer de" seems to be different, it must be followed by a bare noun, i.e. with no specification of quantity.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-travaux-de-linguistique-2018-1-page-43.htm#
In this article, the following example is marked as ungrammatical:
*Le service des livraisons manque de trois / plusieurs voitures.
So I think you have to use the "il me manque" construction instead in such cases.
Let's look at a more literal translations to decipher the logic behind that confusing verb:
Je manque de deux euros. -- Structurally correct, but manquer de needs to be followed by a noun, not an adjective. So you could say Je manque d'argent.
Il me manque deux euros. -- There are two Euros lacking from me. This is the proper way to say it in French.
Does that help you?
Thanks Chris. Actually my confusion was more related to the fact that most lessons are trying to point to proper usage with clear distinctions between meaning. What you're clarifying is that in this lesson either usage is ok to get across that the speaker needs two Euros. Thanks for jumping in.
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