Various Questions...^^;;

1) L'animateur pose une question et les candidats essaient de lui repondre le plus rapide. Le candidat qui repond correctment le plus rapide peux lancer a defi de tourner la roue de la chance.

how must i change this?

2) c'est que je crois

I was meaning to say 'at least that is what I think' but it didn't turn out that great...^^;;

3) how would you say 'is this ok?' in french?

4) mais je ne sais pas de quoi vous direz. Que voulez-vouz une autre fois?

I was meaning to say 'but i don't understand what you are talking about. Could you repeat what you want one more time?'

5) si je gagne une grosse somme d'argent j'acheterais une Porsche et ensuite j'epargnerai le reste

I was meaning to say 'if i win a huge sum of money i would buy a Porsche and then save the rest'

6) Elle est une prisonniere du capitalisme qui croie que son bonheur est determine par l'argent

I was meaning to say 'she is a prisoner of capitalism who believes that her happiness is determined by money'

7) A cet etage, il y a trois appartements. Moi, j'habite cet appartement, a gauche. En face, il y a une famille allemande.

can i say 'j'habite cet appartement'? Shouldn't i say 'j'habite a cet appartement'?

8) je prefere studio 2. Je sais que ce studio n'est pas le plus grand ni le mois cher mais il a une vue sur la tour Eiffel et ca me suffit

I was meaning to say 'I prefer Studio 2. I know it's not the largest nor the cheapest but it has a view of the Eiffel Tower and that is all I need.'

I'm sorry for posting so many questions all at once ^^;;; Thank you for all your answers. ^^

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Permalink Reply by stella on May 21, 2009 at 6:51pm

hello Joseph K, here are some answers :
1- L'animateur pose une question, et les candidats essayent (or essaient) de répondre LE PLUS RAPIDEMENT POSSIBLE. LE PREMIER CANDIDAT à DONNER LA BONNE REPONSE peuT tourner la roue de la chance.
2- I'm sorry I don't understand the english sentence :-( juste the begining if you want "au moins, c'est ce que je pense, mais...."
3- est-ce que c'est bon
4- mais je ne comprends pas de quoi vous êtes en train de parler, pourriez-vous répéter encore une fois?
5- si je GAGNAIT une grosse somme d'argent, j'achèterais une porsche, et ensuite j'épargnerai le reste.
6- elle est prisonnière du capitalisme et croiT que son bonheur est conditionné (déterminé) par l'argent.
7- good! just "à gauche" don't say "j'habite à cet appartement"
8-good! just "je préfère" and "le moins cher"
PS : don't forget, there are accents in french!! ;-)
bon courage!

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 21, 2009 at 7:40pm

Just a couple of additional explanations adding to french flower's excellent response.

In (1), remember you need to be careful to choose between adjective and adverb, and in this case it's generally the adverb that you require rapidement. This can be a bit tricky because in informal English, many adjectives can actually just work as adverbs ("quick" being one of these), but French generally always makes the distinction.

In (2), you would say something like: "C'est ce que je crois, de toute manière". In this case, where "at least" means "in any case", use de toute manière.

In (4), you could also shorten it to simply "...de quoi vous parlez"-- possibly this would be more common in practice?

Notice in (5), then, how French has more of a tendency to follow the pattern of imperfect - conditional. In other words, when in English you say "If I win...", if what you mean is "If theoretically I won...", with a past tense, then French has a strong tendency to actually use the past tense (imperfect, in fact). For what it's worth, the spelling would of course be Si je gagnais. For the final verb, I'd also use the conditional form: j'épargnerais, although this is essentially a spelling issue (with or without the -s, it's pronounced the same).

So note in (6), then, how French doesn't generally use the article in many of these cases where you're attributing identity. Another example would be:

Il est devenu premier ministre
He became (the) prime minister
George Brassens, chanteur français, est né le...
George Brassens, the/a French singer, was born...

In principle, you could also use the construction C'est une prisonnière..., in which case you would use the article.

In (7), if you use the preposition, it would be dans cet appartement. It's actually optional-- you can say J'habite cet appartement or J'habite dans cet appartement. Arguably, the first stresses more the idea of you "taking part in the community" of the flat/building, whereas the second just expresses "mechanically" that you reside in that place. It's a fine distinction, though.

In (8), insert le in le studio 2.

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Permalink Reply by stella on May 21, 2009 at 8:56pm

i'm really sorry for the T in "si je gagnait" (si je gagnais of course). but for the verb "épargner", i'm not ok with you, but tell me if it's not right. (en français, c'est plus facile) si on utilise "ensuite", alors il faut mettre un verbe au futur derrière "j'épargnerai", par contre si on supprime le mot "ensuite", effectivement, on doit mettre un conditionnel "j'épargnerais".

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 21, 2009 at 10:50pm

One test you could use to decide is to change the je to nous:

Si nous gagnions beaucoup d'argent, nous achèterions ... et ensuite nous épargnerions/épargnerons le reste.

If épargnerons sounds more natural, I'd use the -ai ending; if -erions sounds more natueral, use the -ais ending.

Obviously, each sentence is an individual case, but the thing of not putting a conditional after ensuite sounds a bit arbitrary, and I think it's fairly clear there are cases where speakers do do this. For example, how does this sentence sound?

Il a dit qu'il achèterait du pain et qu'ensuite il reviendrait.
(or "...qu'il reviendrait ensuite", I don't think it's the position of ensuite we're testing here)