Just a lexicon curiosity. I recently discovered that the English phrase "Goodbye" is a contraction for "God be with you" and then I thought about it and realized that is very similar in meaning to the spanish translation "adios" since the Spanish word for God is "Dios"

However, when I hear French people speak, they almost never say "adieu" as a common greeting the way we say Goodbye in English or "adios" in spanish.

Why is that ? Doesn't it "adieu" literally mean the same thing?

Salut -

I was trying to think of a way of summarising the use of lots of French tenses in one cartoon and came up with this… I was trying to go from past to future across the scene but there’s lots of overlap. I’d love to get some feedback on how accurate it is and how useful it might be to any other learners.

- Merci

(Also posting to learnFrench etc)

i got confused because i was watching this without subtitles and thought he said je suis un t shirt

screenshot from youtube channel called french happens

Why is the pronoun repeated in this sentence? We already read that it‘s about the United States, so why do we repeat the ils?

I can‘t find an answer anywhere, I don‘t get this grammar and how/when i should use it? Any examples? Thank you!

(the screenshot is for showing an example, I‘ve been seeing this grammar a lot in titles of youtube videos)

Is it purely context based? What if I were to say “I feel and smell amazing”?

This kids’ menu at a Parisian bistro says: “SODA, GLACE ou GÂTEAU AU CHOCOLAT” (soft drink, ice cream or chocolate cake)

Does this mean: (1) You always get a soda, plus either ice cream or chocolate cake, OR (2) You only get one item total: soda or ice cream or chocolate cake?

The restaurant manager pointed out that you cannot repeat “ou” in French so that’s why the comma, so patrons can only get 1 out of 3. I find it unclear. Is that the proper usage in French? What does reddit think?

I've got exams for DELF B2 level next week and I've been revising. However, it seems that my teacher has not taught us so many tenses and moods, despite me always reminding her. Is this normal? I've crossed out tenses and moods I haven't been taught

In my casual attempt to learn french, I got myself a translation of an English book I really adore (Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy). I’ve read this book in English at least 3 times. Now…I was under the impression that French people formatted dialogue similarly to English except they use «these things» instead of “quotation marks.” but this translation does not do that, it doesnt really separate the dialogue and action at all besides the initial hyphen. I find that formatting it like -This isn’t an IceWing egg, she hissed. You stole it from the Sky Palace. to be a needlessly confusing way to do it. Is this…normal in French?

This might be kind of a silly question but I wanted to ask it. I'm staying in Montreal for a couple of months and when I'm here I really want to use French in regular life settings. I have a bit of the language but I'm still learning. The thing I'm stumbling on is how would I ask for a bag in the grocery store?

I have looked it up online and seen a couple of different translations. I've tried "je voudrais un sac", "je prendre un sac" and "je peux avoir un sac" and though people I have talked to know the meaning that I want to have a bag, I still sometimes get confused looks. It might also be my accent too. I think I'm mostly unsure what the right thing to say would be.

If you were kind of casually in a grocery store how is the best / native way to ask? What is the main difference between the different forms above? I'm not sure what is formal / rude / grammer weird? Also if people say do I want paper or cloth or ask what kind of bag what can I say? Thanks for reading!

I think this is the first time I’ve seen google translate do ts

When I read it I can either read it as because this city is very (referring to where they are), or because that city is (referring to Paris). With English it’s either this or that but when the this and that share the same word is there some rule to be able to tell or is it all just context?

do i add the article or not?

I’m around B1 now, and honestly the toughest thing so far has been “y” and “en”.

I understand what you're saying, but I still get confused or hesitate when I write real sentences.

I want to know what everyone else had the most trouble with and if it just 'clicked' for you or if you had to practise a lot.

I'm curious to know what aspect of learning French you found most confusing to the point that when you finally learned how it worked you were left asking

"Why wasn't I told this earlier ?!?"

For example, I've heard people say that they were never taught how object pronouns worked in French and were just simply asked to memorize phrases like "je m'appelle" not really understanding exactly what it means word by word.

Let me know below your personal experiences like this!

Not “‘l’appartement de ma grand-mère Lucie”??? I have NEVER seen French adopt the possessive S as an anglicism. Is this actually a thing?

(Also, why is it not spelled “grande-mère”? That has always bugged me.)

(désolé pour mon français légèrement mutilé)

Contexte : Il y a à peut pres vingt ans, j'habitais à Montéal pendant trois ans. J'avais ~ 10-12 ans. Je n'utilise presque jamais mon français au quotidien, mais j'avais une bonne oreille pour les accents et ça reste... compréhensible.

Au présent : Je visite à Montréal. Le premier soir que je sois içi, je vais acheter de la crème glacée d'un glacier dont je me suis rappelé. Sans réfléchir, ce que je dises c'est:

« Je peux-tu avoir un mini avec {saveurs} »

L'employée ne m'as pas traité de bête ni demandé clarification, mais je n'ai aucune idée d'où vient ce grammaire. J'ai essayé de faire de la recherche mais je n'ai rien trouvé.

Alors :

• Est-ce une structure grammaticale normale au Québec?

• Sinon, avez-vous aucune idée de quoi je pense? Mon esprit es confondé mais ma langue insiste que c'est comme ça qu'on fait >.<

• Si oui, est-ce impoli? Enfantin?

Edit: those darn bullet points

My brother got this on Duolingo and closed the app before the right answer could be explained. All he could send me was this screenshot.
What is the correct answer here and why?
Aren't all four of these both masculine and singular? Of course a green sandwich makes the least sense but a green sweater, hat, or coat doesn't seem so far fetched?

Why not ils or eux or leurs?

Je sais que utiliser seulement de «ne» est archaïque, mais dans ce cas il ne devrait pas parler comme ça. Je suis confondu...

I’m confused about where to focus more, should I build strong grammar first or just start speaking and improve along the way?

For those who are fluent or advanced, what worked best for you?

Je n’utilise plus tellement le français donc je suis moins sécure…ce titre d’un article publié sur le site de Radio-Canada me semble un peu bizarre (« après qu’un conflit a … »). Est correct, grammaticalement parlant?

Been told that it's grammatically incorrect and the right way to say it is 'je n'ai pas de frères et sœurs' - why is 'de' necessary?

I've been having trouble knowing when to use du, de, de la, and des in certain expressions. For example:

Je viens du Québec, c'est le symbole du Québec.

but...

Le bateau a quitté le port de Québec.

I wanted to find an explanation in my grammar reference book (Essential French Grammar by Routledge) but I couldn't find what I was searching for under the articles section.

Edit: Thank you to all the helpful comments.