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1500 questions
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What is a good translation to "end up" somewhere?
How can I be able to express that something will "end up" in a particular place or situation?
For example:
"If you keep getting in trouble, you may end up in jail."
"With good marks, you may end up studying in Harvard."
"You'll end up in the…
Zolani13
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Imparfait or Passé Composé: “j'étais absent” or “j'ai été absent”?
I am a beginner in French language and I still find it hard to wrap around my head between Imparfait and Passé Composé. I know that Imparfait is used to describe continuous actions in past as well as description of a situation and habit in the…
boroxun
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Traduction de « to make sense »
Dans les discussions que j'ai déjà eues, « It makes sense. » exprime à la fois le fait que l'interlocuteur comprend et que cela veut effectivement dire quelque chose. De même « It does not make sense » veut plutôt dire « Cela n'a pas de sens ».
Mon…
jmad
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11
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"Il a les yeux noirs" ou "il a des yeux noirs"?
In my french text book it has two sentence
"Il a les yeux noirs" and "Il a de grands yeux noirs"
I understand that in the second sentence, "de" is actually "des" but it changes because the adjective next to it. So why the first sentence use "les"…
Chi Ho
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11
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"Poil au menton"?
I encountered this while reading Astérix. The conversation goes as follows:
Roman Commander : Après quoi, nous nous débarrasserons de ces deux gaulois ! Ce sera pour eux une leçon !
Roman Lieutenant : Poil au menton !
While I know the literal…
temporary_user_name
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11
votes
2 answers
How do French people turn nouns into adjectives (of a sort)?
I learn French and I enjoy learning about its intricacies, much like English.
I was wondering the other day - how do French people turn nouns into adjectives (when I say adjectives, they're not necessarily actual ones, but when done in English,…
Dog Lover
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How to textually describe the pronunciation of spanish names with "oi"?
There are many names and family names in Spanish that contain the combination of vowels "oi" (Roilán, Moisés, Loinaz, etc.). When these names are pronounced in French, the original pronunciation is completely changed. Is there a way to modify the…
yms
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Expressing the negation of a statement that uses quantifiers
I was looking up the French word for 'woman' on the English-French Cambridge-dicitonary. It stated that the translation is 'la femme'. Not too surprising. However, there is an example sentence given as well:
Toutes les femmes n'aiment pas cuisiner,…
ClassicEndingMusic
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« A voté » ou « à voter » ?
Pour parler un peu de l'actualité française, comment écrire les paroles qu'ont les présidents de scrutin à chaque fois qu'un électeur dépose une enveloppe dans l'urne ?
Je n'ai jamais eu l'ombre d'un doute sur le fait que l'on écrive a voté, surtout…
Lierre
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Are there words in French that wil never have an indefinite article?
I guide a course on Memrise: http://www.memrise.com/course/43618/further-intermediate-french/. There I try to make all my substantives indefinite, because that's the best way to learn the gender of a word. However with some words, I 've never heard…
Tinjo
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Learning French from English or Spanish
As a native English speaker, I learned Spanish using both classroom study and in-country learning. I am fluent in Spanish, but don't have the same vocabulary as in English, however, I probably have a better understanding of Spanish grammar than…
thunsaker
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votes
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Ironic constructions in French
As part of my masters in linguistics, I am taking a course on the subject of irony. We were given examples of sentences that are most likely ironic, as the English sentence “he is not exceptionally smart” (which has the structure “he is not…
iddober
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Origine de "gross malheur"
D'où vient réellement l'expression humoristique "gross malheur" (ou "groß Malheur") ?
Références bienvenues.
Si je me trompe pas, cette expression (rare) est parfois utilisée pour ironiser sur un "first world problem" personnel.
Nicolas Raoul
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11
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Traduire « pettifogging »
En anglais pettifogging est défini comme étant « Placing undue emphasis on petty details » et « to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters ».
Quel mot français pourrais être utilisé pour signifier la même chose avec une connotation…
Wadih M.
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Word "cartographie" in an IT context
In an interview for a computing job recently, I was told I would be doing cartographie.
In the context of IT what does this word mean? I'm guessing it means the mapping out of information flows and interactions between systems, but I couldn't find a…
Rich
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