A few questions:

Can someone tell me if the following sentences are correct please? I'm teaching myself French and am having some trouble.

1. L'enfant qui a le cube pleurer. (or is it pleure?)
2. Jules a sorti avec Marion.
3. Christian est descendu du bus.
4. Georges, tu es revenu de Tombouctou?
5. Ils ont passé de bonnes vacances.
6. Michelle a sorti un cube de sa poche
7. Albert est monté prendre une café.
8. Les petites filles ont rentré leur bicyclette au garage.
9. Frank a bu trop de biére. Il a devenu aggressif.
10. Maman s'a endormi dans son fauteuil.
11. Alain s'a trompé de livre
12. La veuve n'a pas accueillé sa souer avec amabilité

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Frank on June 26, 2009 at 9:07pm

Probably just a typo. And the right way to spell sister is actually "sœur" (Alt-O inserts the œ character on a Mac keyboard), but it's not a big deal if you write "soeur" anyway.

However "avec amabilité" is... well... this is something you can read in French lesson books, but no one would say that. Even in a formal conversation, it'd sound very old or snoby. Really, forget it, it's not a useful expression. The closest not-so-obsolete word would be the adjective "aimablement". But "gentiment" or "correctement" or "poliment" would sound more natural to describe how she was "accueillie".

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on June 27, 2009 at 5:56am

I'd say that using o-e digraph is just a typographical convention (and one that's not always adhered to nowadays, and practically never in informal computer-based settings such as e-mails or fora such as this) rather than strictly a spelling issue. The spelling of "soeur" is "soeur", whether or not you choose to use the digraph (just as "fils" is "fils", whether or not you choose to use an f-i digraph).

Incidentally, a similar typographical convention exists in English: some typographers will use an o-e digraph (and some people will write o-e as a digraph) in words such as "manoeuvre".

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Permalink Reply by Frank on June 27, 2009 at 1:11pm

Absolutely.

The main reason it's not used in informal computer-based settings is that even on a French keyboard, there's no "œ" key.

However, some spell-checkers will insist on underlining "soeur". You have to know why. But it's really, really, really not a big deal if you don't care about that typographic (who said "and pointless" out there?) rule.