What

Replies to This Discussion

EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on May 18, 2012 at 6:41pm

It is "ce que" for the way you are using it and it mught be "ce qu'il me faut" for what I need or ,maybe more formally "ce dont j'ai besoin".

Good luck by the way.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Crack1 on May 18, 2012 at 9:55pm

Thanks George

"Ce qu'il me faut est une nouvelle voiture.

Ce qu'il me faut est une belle fille.

I hope the above are fine.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 18, 2012 at 10:24pm

There's just a minor correction to make, which isn't necessarily obvious if you haven't come across it before and are comparing with English. In French, in these kinds of sentence (for which a technical term is "pseudo-cleft" in case you want to research further), you'd actually say:

Ce qu'il me faut, c'est une nouvelle voiture.

Ce qu'il me faut, c'est une belle fille.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Crack1 on May 19, 2012 at 4:30pm

Thanks Neil

Ce qu'il me faut, c'est est une nouvelle voiture.

Ce qu'il me faut, c'est est une belle fille.

You have written 'c'est est une'.

I find it very interesting.

So French is a very tough language.

..................

4.Ce qu'il me faut, c'est  une nouvelle voiture.

5.Ce qu'il me faut, c'est  une belle fille.

So 4th and 5th sentences are not correct.

I am very surprised to learn this.

• ▶ Reply

EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on May 19, 2012 at 4:46pm

that was a misprint.Neil wrote est twice by mistake -that is all.

Your 4th and 5th sentences are correct.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Crack1 on May 19, 2012 at 10:33pm

Thanks George

Yesterday I had a chat with a friend.

Today I would say the following:

What I said was correct.

Ce que  j'ai dis été vrai . [ Is this fine?]

• ▶ Reply

EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on May 20, 2012 at 12:13am

more or less fine but you have made 2 small (different mistakes).

Correctly written it would be 

(1) Ce que  j'ai dit  a été vrai.

or

(2) Ce que  j'ai dit était vrai.

In the second sentence I used the imperfect  past tense of être (to be) and in the first sentence I used the plain past tense. I think either is possible.

 

But the basic construction of your translation   of   "what I said"  is  fine.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on May 21, 2012 at 7:34pm

Sorry, yes, I meant to replace "est" with "c'est" and accidentally left both in! I've corrected in the version above -- obviously, you just need "c'est", and not then "est" as well! Thanks for spotting!

• ▶ Reply