What's your bête noire of French grammar?

[Neil Coffey]

Dear all,

I'm looking to expand the site's French grammar section so am looking for suggestions of new topics to include. So in a nutshell my question is:

What are the things that you find difficult/confusing about French?!

[Stephen Liu]

Hi Neil,


What are the things that you find difficult/confusing about French?!

Whether you meant generally OR French grammar? If referring to the latter my personal opinion is the preposition agreeing with the verbs. For the tenses it won't be difficult to find on Internet. There are tons of data there. But experience is important, not picking a wrong tense.

B.R.
SL

[Neil Coffey]

Thanks, that's interesting. I posted a little information on another thread about using "à" vs "de" with verbs, though I'm definitely going to include a proper section on this.

[Edgar Colín]

Verb tenses!

[Pamela Kingfisher]

Reflexive verbs definately. Such as,
me moquer

Je ne peux pas me moquer de toi.
This is so odd to an English speaker. It seems to read " I can't make fun of myself of you.
However It means I can't make fun of you.
Pam

[Une]

In fact, just about every thing in French is confusing and very complicated. One example: I miss you - Tu me manques. Will you miss me - Je te manquerai?

[Jill P. McCormick]

Trust me--what you just mentioned about using the verb 'manquer' is one of the most confusing of all. All of French isn't that complicated!!

[Mai Phuong]

Uses of EN

[Emily S]

How to pronounce things

[Neil Coffey]

Yes, this is a common request. I'm hoping to add a pronunciation section to the web site in the not too distant future. Stay tuned!

[Al Graham]

A pronunciation section would be great. If you do add one, what would also be great is if the conjugations for the présent de l'indicatif could be pronounced, not just the infinitive. I can nearly always figure out how to pronounce the infinitive form: 'vouloir', for example, is easy enough, but how is the first person 'veux' supposed to sound? Same for 'connaître': do 'connais' and 'connaîssent' sound alike or does the latter end with a sibilant, etc. etc.

This is a great site--I've already found it very helpful, and I discovered it only a few days ago. Thanks especially for the help with 'quelques' and 'des' in another thread.

Al

[Frank]

About pronunciation: here's a link to a great web page where you can listen to a large collection of French words and phrases, by native French speakers: Swac Collections

[Adela Haselden]

I'm trying to help with homework and always get confused between when to use les v. des. For example "she likes apples" is it "elle aime les or des pommes"? Useful advice please!