Hot answers tagged verbes
20
You could use this form in a figurative way, when describing objects falling down or being thrown in big quantities. It can also be found in sport comments, usually tennis and maybe boxing, for example Les coups droits pleuvaient sur le Central (litterally Forehands were raining on the Central Court).
12
This particular use of présent is called présent de narration or présent historique, it describes a past event in the présent tense.
présent de narration ou présent historique : il est employé dans les récits pour donner un relief particulier à un fait en le rendant plus présent à l'esprit du lecteur ou de l'auditeur. Il est généralement introduit par ...
12
In articles such as those, the present tense is very common. It also has the particularity of being called présent historique. Basically, it allows for a lighter text and can be mixed with passé simple to emphasize certain events. Wikipedia has a little article on its pros and cons. You will most often find this kind of structure in history books or ...
12
The common idiom is on dirait que (TLF: I.B.1.a.γ). It is followed by a verb in the indicative mood.
On dirait qu'il y a moins de sièges¹ ici que dans le métro actuel. Y a-t-il effectivement moins de sièges ?
Other impersonal constructions are possible. Avoiding the impersonal on makes for slightly more formal writing. Another common idiom is il ...
10
Choir (to fall, defective verb, rarely used)
Démordre (the mechanical action opposed to to bite, i.e. to release after a bite. Nearly only used in the idiom ne pas vouloir en démordre which means not wanting to give up or hold one's position stubbornly)
Désapprendre (used frequently, meaning unlearn)
Paître (to feed on grass, used for ruminant animals ...
9
Se déplacer, c'est aller d'un endroit (d'une « place ») à un autre.
« Comment te déplaces-tu ? » : "How do you move about?". On
s'attend à une réponse du genre : « À pied (en cheval, en
voiture...) ».
L'équivalent de se déplacer serait se mouvoir, (« se mettre en mouvement ») et pas juste mouvoir. La différence entre les deux est essentiellement ...
8
First, the re- prefix doesn't always connote re-petition (e.g. recompter), it may also indicate re-currence (e.g. rebondir), re-action (e.g. rebondir with a different meaning), re-adjustment (e.g. rehausser), or state re-covery (e.g. revenir), re-ciprocity (e.g. redevoir), among others.
Most verbs do not admit such a prefix. I would advise you against ...
7
Si on n'utilise pas de pronom, cette phrase peut aussi être écrite :
Les reines ont succédé aux reines.
On s’aperçoit que le rôle du pronom réfléchi est celui d'un objet indirect (COI) dans cette phrase. Il apparait aussi que le véritable auxiliaire est avoir, et qu'il ne peut y avoir d'accord puisqu'il n'y a pas d’objet direct.
Dans une phrase qui ...
7
No, as far as I know, there is no such construct in French. However, you have other options for emphasis besides variations of intonation
Using an adverb
Usually beaucoup or others amplifiers énormément, terriblement, absolument… As in
— Tu aimes les rollmops ?
— Oui, beaucoup.
One can also drop the oui in these cases
— Tu aimes les rollmops ?
...
7
On oppose souvent les deux premiers groupes, vivants, au troisième groupe, qui n'est plus productif, dans lequel, comme il a été dit, rentrent divers verbes qui ne correspondent pas aux deux premières conjugaisons.
Pour ce qui est des néologismes, ils sont donc formés, en général, sur le modèle des verbes du premier groupe (majoritairement) ou du second.
...
7
All verbs that take "être" as their auxiliary verb must agree in gender and number with the subject. Does this apply also to pronominal verbs?
Not always.
There are two kinds of pronominal verbs: essentially pronominal verbs and occasionally pronominal verbs. And of course different rules apply to them.
Essentially pronominal verbs
Essentially ...
7
More accurately (IMO) coups is a common word for this, but many other terms expressing something abstract can also be used: insultes or injures is a common exemple in dictionaries too. The TLFi has a bunch of examples if you care to look at it.
6
I would say there are two main ways of expressing this idea in French, namely "il semble (que)" (perhaps literally translated as "it seems (that)") and "on dirait que" (literally "one would say that"). "It appears as though" can be translated as "il appert que", but it is a very literary phrasing and I do not recommend using it.
"Il semble (que)" is more ...
6
Jean Dubois and Françoise Dubois-Charlier have made a global semantic classification of the verbs in French, the reference site for this database is at their homepage (in French). It features a browsable version of the database and many information documents.
I am not familiar with Levin's classes, but this may be what you want. Regarding motion verbs, you ...
6
No it's not necessary to repeat the subject pronoun (or the subject in general), however if there is an object pronoun, you'll have to repeat the full verb. Your example would be:
J'ai préparé un repas et l'ai mangé.
As mentionned by Stéphane, you could also skip both the object pronoun and the auxiliary, but that would result in a slightly different ...
5
This à is a preposition and is not part of the verb form. This sentence is based on the construction “être [un certain nombre] à” like in:
Ils sont 3 sur 4 à regarder la télé plus de trois heures par jour.
Ils sont plus de la moitié à regretter son départ.
This preposition is then followed by a verb in infinitive form. In French an infinitive can be ...
5
Actually, translating the same way in English is almost all these two expressions have in common. The verbs you rightly identified bear different meanings (as Stéphane mentions, to be and to call oneself), both incidentaly covered by are.
5
Sortir possède dans le TLF une entrée spécifique pour le substantif, et ce n'est pas le cas de tous les autres verbes. Je pense que ça répond aux deux questions :
C'est du bon français, bien que peut-être un peu vieillot.
Ce n'est possible qu'avec certains verbes.
Note: Manger admet aussi une substantivation mais sa définition correspond plutôt à de la ...
5
I don't really understand what bothers you, the uses of these tenses are the same as for all verbs, except that as a semi-auxiliary, the semantic informaton is transferred to the verb it modifies, but it is the same as for any other semi-auxiliary, e.g. vouloir or pouvoir.
devait is the past imperfective (or inaccompli) for situational information, it ...
5
In the first sentence, the important observation is that the sheep crossed the road. What was seen is the crossing. The fact that I've seen sheep is (mostly) irrelevant.
In the second sentence, the relevant is that the police spotted him. What was seen is him. The last part of the sentence merely specifies the conditions, but they are considered less ...
4
Choose one form and keep to it. You may try to guess someone origin by the form he uses, but I doubt anybody will pay attention to what a non-native speaker is using.
Grevisse, le bon usage, douzième édition,
Les jugements portés sur les deux séries diffèrent d'une grammaire (ou d'un dictionnaire) à l'autre. Il y a des préférences régionales : les ...
4
Asseoir is indeed a peculiar verb.
First, it has two forms (e.g. you can say j'asseois et j'assieds for the present tense). Both of them are accepted, but the 2nd one is considered nicer.
The verb is generally used in its reflexive form. Meaning the verb object represents the subject.
J'assieds le bébé sur sa chaise. (I sit the baby on her chair)
Je ...
4
All this is correct, here mettre is used with an indirect object vous and with a direct object l'info. The use of vous directly as a pronoun is slightly informal though, as the correct preposition would be pour:
Je mets en bas l'info pour vous.
In comparison “Je vous vérifie ça” is slightly colloquial, and one would expect “Je vérifie cela pour vous” ...
3
Être, présent du subjonctif :
que je sois
que tu sois
qu'il/qu'elle/qu'on soit
que nous soyons
que vous soyez
qu'ils/qu'elles soient
You would say the root would be "soi-"
"être" is as strange in French as it is in English : I am, you are, he is, don't show any roots either.
3
Approcher can be used both transitively, intransitively, and as a pronominal verb (s'approcher). All three possibilities produce a slightly different meaning. I'll give some examples bellow. The translation you provided “Les directeurs m'approchent” corresponds to a transitive use of the verb and is probably the best translation for your original ...
3
Recouvrir is quite never used as Couvrir une nouvelle fois (cover again), and that's precisely because recouvrir and couvrir are two different verbs.
Laure is right in that recouvrir is more used when you wrap up something totally, while couvrir can be used in all cases, and can have much more meanings. For instance, you'd say that le ciel est couvert (the ...
3
You can find all the common conjugations of gésir at le conjugueur. You have imparfait and present participle, too. As to I would lie down and its mates, I would use je serais couché, as in [se coucher].
Or you could innovate. Try j'aurais gési, je giserais…
2
1) There are two different spellings: asseoir (traditional, much more common, the one I prefer and the one I use for this answer), and assoir (1990 modernized grammar, typical of some official texts, but still less common).
2) There are two strictly equivalent, fully correct conjugation forms to asseoir (to make or help someone / something sit down) or ...
2
There are lots of pre-existing case (everyday use) of verbs with re- before: rebondir, rejaillir, retordre, retrousser…
But the re- form enables you to make new verbs with a meaning of repetition or not, which are not provided (directly) by the French language. You can use the re- before a verb with almost every verbs or nouns in French.
A very good ...
2
In a general sense Couvrir is "to cover". But the verb has several meanings and you'd need to give more of a context.
In English "cover" will usually be followed by a preposition that will specify the meaning, and you might end up with different verbs in French. Have a look at Reverso.
Indeed recouvrir is to cover again. But when used in a concrete sense, ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
