<curiosity>
>> Oui, eh bien on s'en lasse un peu de la poésie
>> de votre père
> Would this sentence be unacceptable without the
> pronoun 'en'?
Well... the "en" is grammatically superfluous, but
in everyday speech the sentence would somehow sound
less natural without it. See it as a reinforcement,
maybe. Another example : on s'en fiche, de ta bagnole !
>>> Qu'est-ce que je vais pouvoir faire des sandwiches,
>>> moi, avec ça.
> I'm not sure exactly what she's saying above.
> Obviously she's complaining that she can't make
> sandwiches with the bread, but I'm not clear on
> the grammar (des sandwiches).
Oops, I missed that one. She doesn't say "qu'est-ce que
je vais... ?" but "est-ce que je vais... ?" (= vais-je ?)
Now "Qu'est-ce que je vais pouvoir faire des sandwiches"
is possible, but with another meaning ("I have sandwiches,
but I wonder what I'm going to do with them"). "Faire de"
is also used to mean "faire avec" ("mon pauvre enfant, tu
es nul en français, tu en nul en maths, qu'est-ce qu'on
va pouvoir faire de toi ?").
>>> Mais c'est firme, c'est firme
>> c'est ferme, c'est ferme
> my dictionary has both spellings. Is there a significant
> difference in the pronunciation or meaning?
"Firme" is a name (une firme = a firm, a company).
"Ferme" is the adjective (ferme = firm, steady).
And, of course, "une ferme" = a farm. But there is no
adjective "firme".
Pierre Hallet
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