French language Q&A Forum

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The answer was "that Darbeinet's text is a bit out of date and to native speakers (members of the language team and relatives ;-) ), 'faire' is definitely the verb to use here."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So être is out of date?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) 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So, Larousse, also, is wrong/out of date in using avoir as the verb here?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!

I know that this phrase is incorrect: "Le bâtiment d'ancien où mes parents habitaient", but I also know that sometimes "de" is used with an adjective in similar phrases.

What is the rule about whether to add "de" to an adjective?

"Les aventures d'Astérix sont traduites" - Grateful if you could explain why "traduites" is used instead of "traduisent". My thinking is that the translation refers to the adventures (which is plural).  Thank you in advance!

I asked about this previously & the answer that was given was that both spellings were acceptable with the hyphenated spelling more widely used. But in the text of this lesson the first sentence uses "week-end" & the last sentence uses "weekend". At the very least wouldn't the convention be to use the same spelling throughout a composition unless directly quoting another written piece?

In the first sentence, "la tempête [...] a frappé notre village à Noël," why do we use "à" here? Can you say, "la tempête a frappé le Noël"? Is "à" used with all holidays, e.g., "la tempête a frappé à Paques," etc.?

1. Jean- Pierre remarque la belle Mireille. Jean-Pierre

………remarque.

2. Mireille lève les yeux. Elle…….

lève.

3. Robert ne connaît pas Henri. Il ne………

connait pas.

4. Il n'ouvre pas cette porte. Il ne

……….ouvre pas.

5. Paul va fermer la fenêtre. Il va

……….fermer

1. Jean- Pierre remarque la belle Mireille. Jean-Pierre

remarque.

2. Mireille lève les yeux. Elle

lève.

3. Robert ne connaît pas Henri. Il ne

connait pas.

4. Il n'ouvre pas cette porte. Il ne

ouvre pas.

5. Paul va fermer la fenêtre. Il va

fermer

Could you use "je suis pressé(e) de..." for "I can't wait to...". i.e. Je suis pressé(e) de découvrir le manoir hanté...

I thought I had seen that construction suggested as a possibility somewhere in the past, but I'm never quite sure if it rings correctly to a native speaker, or if that sounds more like "I'm in a hurry to..." (i.e. more stressed than excited).

Yes Paul. I agree with you. I never learned phrases like that in school. Would they be commonly used ie. Should I try to use them in conversation or would I get funny looks, haha?

What would "some teacher" be in french if not -"un professeur"?

If it was "some teachers", It would have been ... something else?