What's your bête noire of French grammar?

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on July 2, 2009 at 9:00pm

Hi Neil,


What are the things that you find difficult/confusing about French?!

Whether you meant generally OR French grammar? If referring to the latter my personal opinion is the preposition agreeing with the verbs. For the tenses it won't be difficult to find on Internet. There are tons of data there. But experience is important, not picking a wrong tense.

B.R.
SL

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on July 3, 2009 at 11:02am

Thanks, that's interesting. I posted a little information on another thread about using "à" vs "de" with verbs, though I'm definitely going to include a proper section on this.

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Permalink Reply by Edgar Colín on July 15, 2009 at 7:03pm

Verb tenses!

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Permalink Reply by Pamela Kingfisher on July 23, 2009 at 10:04pm

Reflexive verbs definately. Such as,
me moquer

Je ne peux pas me moquer de toi.
This is so odd to an English speaker. It seems to read " I can't make fun of myself of you.
However It means I can't make fun of you.
Pam

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Permalink Reply by Une on August 24, 2009 at 10:52am

In fact, just about every thing in French is confusing and very complicated. One example: I miss you - Tu me manques. Will you miss me - Je te manquerai?

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Permalink Reply by Mai Phuong on August 24, 2009 at 10:57am

Uses of EN

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Permalink Reply by Emily S on September 8, 2009 at 2:03pm

How to pronounce things

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on September 8, 2009 at 5:59pm

Yes, this is a common request. I'm hoping to add a pronunciation section to the web site in the not too distant future. Stay tuned!

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Permalink Reply by Al Graham on September 10, 2009 at 1:24am

A pronunciation section would be great. If you do add one, what would also be great is if the conjugations for the présent de l'indicatif could be pronounced, not just the infinitive. I can nearly always figure out how to pronounce the infinitive form: 'vouloir', for example, is easy enough, but how is the first person 'veux' supposed to sound? Same for 'connaître': do 'connais' and 'connaîssent' sound alike or does the latter end with a sibilant, etc. etc.

This is a great site--I've already found it very helpful, and I discovered it only a few days ago. Thanks especially for the help with 'quelques' and 'des' in another thread.

Al

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Permalink Reply by Frank on September 10, 2009 at 2:26am

About pronunciation: here's a link to a great web page where you can listen to a large collection of French words and phrases, by native French speakers: Swac Collections

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Permalink Reply by Adela Haselden on September 11, 2009 at 1:39am

I'm trying to help with homework and always get confused between when to use les v. des. For example "she likes apples" is it "elle aime les or des pommes"? Useful advice please!

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Permalink Reply by cesare Brocco on September 20, 2009 at 5:49pm

I get confused between the proper french and "street lingo" ex: merci beaucoup-(formal) and je vous en prie, (street lingo)
Im guess all depend who you talking to age wise, nes pas?
The verbs, nouns and basic grammar should not be difucul after learnind them

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