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Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on December 9, 2010 at 8:41pm
Permalink Reply by Michael Le on December 10, 2010 at 1:03am 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
Permalink Reply by ABC on February 13, 2011 at 12:32am 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.
Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on February 13, 2011 at 4:04pm 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.
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