leooo64

[naive venture]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[uneven summit]

I'm not familiar with this Agnès person, but I like Lawless French's explanation: https://www.lawlessfrench.com/vocabulary/an-jour-matin-soir-vs-annee-journee-matinee-soiree/

[hard elm]

you were probably not being very serious, but it doesn't make you an idiot to not have mastery over a concept in a language you're learning! fwiw I struggle with this question too!! go easy on yourself 🙂

[dawn saddle]

This one indeed was really good! Thank you

The only thing that confused me is that "I spent three days eating" and "I spent three days in Italy" are getting treated differently.

But this might depend on context? So If someone asks me how long i was in italy with focus on the actual amount of time i use jours? And If i tell someone about the moment with focus on the activity i use journées?

[sly cloak]

It’s more like the focus on duration so in the first example, all we’re getting is that you were in Italy for three days and that’s it; we don’t know what you did, why you did it, or how, we just know it’s three days in Italy and that’s it. For the second example, it emphasises that during those three days what you did was eating like from morning to evening you were going on a culinary tour or something. « jour » just counts the amount of time but « journée » emphasises the length of time.

[dawn saddle]

thank you for your reply! sorry for responding so late

i stumbeld over an concret example, if i want to say "i am learning french for one year"

do i say "J'apprends le français depuis un an." or is it une année?

thank you in advance!!

[sly cloak]

No worries. In your example, only « un an » is correct in my opinion because you're describing the amount of time and not necessarily the duration itself. Basically you're just counting the years here; you've been learning for a month, two months, six months, a year, two years, etcetera.
An example that comes to me with « année » is something like « J'ai appris le français cette année » because it emphasises that the action took place over the given duration, a year.

[dawn saddle]

then i understood it correctly! thank you so much

would i use année if i for example emphasize how long and difficult the time was in the rest of the sentence?

[sly cloak]

I think so but I think it would be context-dependent a lot of the time

[dawn saddle]

thank you so much!
i think i understood it enough to get a feeling for it :)

[sly cloak]

Especially with « an/année » which can break the rules compared to the other pairings of jour/journée, soir/soirée, matin/matinée

[dawn saddle]

so the rest is "easier"? Thats good news :D

[sly cloak]

It’s definitely something you tend to pick up as you use the structure more and more

[dawn saddle]

thank you for helping!!