Discuss and learn French: French vocabulary, French grammar, French culture etc.
French Vocab Games app for iPhone/iPad French-English dictionary French grammar French vocab/phrases
For the latest updates, follow @FrenchUpdates on Twitter!
Tags:
Thank you very much! Thank you thank you!Thank you thank you!Thank you thank you!Thank you thank you!Thank you thank you!Thank you thank you!
That helped me a lot! :D
Saying à is a bad habit because all verbs mean "to ____" like manger: TO eat or chanter: TO sing.
"I have to vacuum every day" would be: Je dois passer l'aspirateur toute les jours.
Notice my use of the helping verb devoir which means to have to, or must. Toute also has an e on the end.
"I have to clean the toilets" is: Je dois nettoyer les toilettes.
Always remember to use the verb devoir (it was conjugated as dois) to say that you have to do something. Also, remember not to use à before a verb because the word "to" is already included in it when it is in its infinitive (regular) form.
I'm not quite sure about the logic of deciding to use or not use a particular construction on the basis of its translation in another language. In French, if you use avoir with an infinitive, à is inserted and it's a perfectly acceptable, idiomatic construction.
I suspect it's also true, as others have previously pointed out, using devoir is more common in the "objectless" case (e.g. J'ai à travailler, rather than J'ai beaucoup de travail à faire: the latter would be perfectly usual I think). But it doesn't have anything to do with the reason you mention.
Hello ABC,
Notice :) that Toute les jours is incorrect. It is tous les jours. Toute is for feminine singular.
- Je dois passer l'aspirateur tous les jours
- Je dois passer l'aspirateur toute la journée
Hello Neil,
J'ai beaucoup de travail à faire can be reduced to simply J'ai beaucoup de travail.
© 2024 Created by Neil Coffey. Powered by