What's your bête noire of French grammar?

Dear all,

I'm looking to expand the site's French grammar section so am looking for suggestions of new topics to include. So in a nutshell my question is:

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

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on July 3, 2009 at 4:00am

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

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on July 3, 2009 at 6:02pm

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.

Permalink Reply by Edgar Colín on July 16, 2009 at 2:03am

Verb tenses!

Permalink Reply by Pamela Kingfisher on July 24, 2009 at 5:04am

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

Permalink Reply by Une on August 24, 2009 at 5:52pm

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?

Permalink Reply by Jill P. McCormick on November 8, 2010 at 4:37am

Trust me--what you just mentioned about using the verb 'manquer' is one of the most confusing of all. All of French isn't that complicated!!

Permalink Reply by Mai Phuong on August 24, 2009 at 5:57pm

Uses of EN

Permalink Reply by Emily S on September 8, 2009 at 9:03pm

How to pronounce things

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on September 9, 2009 at 12:59am

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!

Permalink Reply by Al Graham on September 10, 2009 at 8:24am

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

Permalink Reply by Frank on September 10, 2009 at 9:26am

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

Permalink Reply by Adela Haselden on September 11, 2009 at 8:39am

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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