alan gould's Page

""Riposte " sounds more "point to  point" to me. Is it a fencing term originally,I wonder."

"Literally it might be "following on from  your letter" but it probably  might correspond to."Thanks for your letter  etc etc etc" Just a way of referencing that you received their letter and taking note of any…"

" i was once told here that "french isn't always logical  i was once told here that "French isn't always logical by english logic, by English logic,"

"truthfully, i'm having trouble seeing the difference.  but i get from it that i'll be fine translating it logically and the easiest way for me.  Tx"

""ll s'est endormi tellement il était fatigué" vs "il était tellement fatigué qu'il s'est endormi" you doesn't need to memorize these two ways, the two are understood and used to say…"

"I don't know exactly what means "not really". I think it's rather "pas vraiment". But the two  "pas vraiment" and "pas tellement" could be used to answer a sentence for exemple even if they…"

"If you change the order of phrases within the sentence then you change the overall meaning.The order is part of the meaning. There are all sorts of things that affect the overall meaning of a spoken or written communication . An actor can repeat…"

"it could be used, but is not common.  in french, would it be more normal?  i think i would prefer to say he was so tired that he fell asleep and i think that would be fine.  "

""pas tellement" is "not a lot" "pas vraiment" is not really. Of course ,depending on context you could use either. (more"vraiment" for "tellement" than the other way round,I would say)"

"You can have the same structure in English. eg "He fell asleep ,being so tired" As it is so uncommon it feels odd but if adopted it would come to feel natural. French is not "illogical" it just  has different syntactical…"

""à grandes eaux" or "à grande eau" : "eau" means really water and not anything else and this expression is only for water, or washing with water. There are "les grandes eaux" too = big fountains…"

"I seem to remember the expression "a grands flots". Does that mean the same thing and are there other similar "a grands...." expressions?"

"No. that expression means "with a lot of water" so just for "laver", "rincer" "nettoyer"."

"Seems to be mainly used with "laver" although "nettoyer"  also works. It's "a grande   l'   eau"…"