aiyez pitie moi, j'ai les problemes de langue

1. a la fin d'apres midi - is this expression ok does it means the evening or early evening around 5 pm ; is that correct?

2. Please explain ' parvenu or parvenir' I don't seems to get the meaning .

3. How to say ' draw back ' in french example ' The draw back is the pollution from the extraction of the oil'

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on April 16, 2011 at 4:59pm

In (1), I wonder if you meant en fin d'après-midi although you can also say à la fin de l'après-midi (just be careful of the extra article if you use à la). I think many speakers would understand the hour or so when it's "getting dark", so possibly a little later than 5pm for much of the year.

In (2), parvenir à basically means "to reach", "get to", "arrive at". For example: est-ce que cette lettre vous est parvenue? - did this letter get to you?. In slightly administrative language you can also say things like "Je vous ferai parvenir ma réponse" which means something like "I'll have my reply sent on to you".

You can also use parvenir à with an infinitive to mean "to manage to...": je suis parvenu à le retrouver = I managed to find him/it.