"I was almost there" in French?

Question

I was wondering how you would say 'I was almost there' in French. I tried a couple of things but it looked a bit weird..

J'étais là presque.

Or a different order?

Je presque étais là.

Or should I use 'y' instead of 'là'?

J'y étais presque.

Or maybe this?

J'y presque étais.

Or something completely different. I don't know... :/

Just as a note of interest: "là" takes an accent when meaning "there". — Chop, Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 5:47
tip: almost nothing can interrupt the flow between a subject pronoun and a verb: you can never put something like presque there, but only y, en, object pronouns, ne, and I think that's it. (plus the weird, legalistic je soussigné(e)). it helps you remember this if you think of "subject pronoun + (ne) + (y/en/object pronoun) + verb" as one big word that you happen to put some extra spaces in when you write. — hunter, Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 12:08

Personne · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-08 20:12:36Z

13

The best way to say it would be :

J'y étais presque.

Personne

24k6 gold badges38 silver badges69 bronze badges

answered Oct 8, 2015 at 18:18

milk2go

1,5771 gold badge11 silver badges25 bronze badges

2

without the accent please.:-)
– Fabrice NEYRET
Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 20:08
2

The best, and the only one among candidates... Note that other sentences are wrong, except "J'étais presque là", but it wasn't a candidate :)
– Random
Commented Oct 9, 2015 at 6:52
Sure not at prèsque ;-) (it has been edited meanwhile)
– Fabrice NEYRET
Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 8:47

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1