Vous me ré pelez de sortir la poubelle is in the present. In English remind is only used in the past or future. For example remind me to take out the

Katrina H.A2Kwiziq community member

Vous me ré pelez de sortir la poubelle is in the present. In English remind is only used in the past or future. For example remind me to take out the

bin or you reminded me to take out the bin. There is no present tense. How does this work in french?
Asked 6 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi katrina, 

Just to add on to what Chris has said , "Remind me to take out the bin" is actually the Imperative present used for requests and commands. 

"Rappelle-moi de sortir la poubelle."

Hope this helps!

 

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Katrina,

You say that in English "to remind" is only used in the past of future but in your example you are using it in the present tense:

Remind me to take out the bin. -- Present tense.
You reminded me to take out the bin. -- Past tense.
You will remind me to take out the bin. -- Future tense.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

J. M.A1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

The best definition I know of tense says only that it is "connected" to the time when something happens. "Remind me to take out the bin" is, grammatically speaking, in the present tense. But it only makes sense semantically as expressing a wish for the future: remind me IN THE FUTURE to take out the bin.

Many confusions like this come from the blurring of syntax and semantics. Tense is purely syntactic.

Katrina H. asked:

Vous me ré pelez de sortir la poubelle is in the present. In English remind is only used in the past or future. For example remind me to take out the

bin or you reminded me to take out the bin. There is no present tense. How does this work in french?

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