On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:09:08 +0100, "Pierre Hallet"
<pierre.hallet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
><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".
Quite! - it says "firme (n)". Why didn't I see that?
(Is there a french equivalent for "Doh!!"?)
>
>Pierre Hallet
I'm grateful for all the detail above, Pierre. Thanks.
|
