chloe

[sleek ferry]

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.

[stark pecan]

No, English can afford to be implicit whereas French can't. For example, take that first sentence.
'Is she upset? She told me she is.'
« Est-ce qu'elle est bouleversée ? Elle m'a dit qu'elle l'était. »

Notice that little « l » before « était » ? Well, that's the neuter object pronoun which is used to complete the arguments of a verb. For example, just saying, « elle était » would be incomplete; she was what? In English, you can just imply that it must've been the adjective used before but in French, that sentence is incomplete and so the neuter pronoun comes in complete it.
« Elle m'a dit qu'elle était bouleversée => Elle m'a dit qu'elle l'était. »

That works out for the first and third sentences, but the second doesn't work because English uses do-support for negation so all we need to do is just mention the helper verb and the meaning can be implicitly understood. If we were to use an auxiliary verb – since auxiliary verbs can take negation without do-support – we'd have to repeat that verb instead of the helper do.
Ex:
'Haven't you gone to the market earlier today? No, I haven't.'
By the way, if you're British, this completion thing might be a bit familiar since British English inserts 'do' to complete the argument.
'Haven't you gone to the market earlier today? No, I've not done [what you've said].'

[dreamy turret]

Here are a couple of articles on ellipsis, the phenomenon you're describing

https://www.lalanguefrancaise.com/linguistique/ellipse-figure-de-style

https://www.espacefrancais.com/ellipse/#Lrsquoellipse_irreguliere

i've only skimmed so i can't vouch for the quality

[stark pecan]

It’s not really ellipsis because ellipsis is poetic; the omission of words work to make sentences shorter and making the reader fill in the silence of the writer. The question above isn’t poetic at all. I can see a wife asking her husband the second question and it would be totally normal and not poetic

[muted tide]

So is the shortest way to render the second example non, je ne l’ai pas fait?

And the third je pourrais sortir / je pourrais le faire / je sortirai peut-être

[stark pecan]

Non, je ne l'ai pas oublié*

because the main verb is « oublier (forget) »

« Tu as oublié de faire la vaisselle. Non, je l'ai pas oublié. »

[muted tide]

Okay - you can’t replace a more specific verb with “faire”

Thanks

[granite meteor]

sorry i didn't respond to this earlier but thanks for the info! i'd never heard of this concept before, that's very interesting

in the lawless french article it mentions that this is a formal construction, so do you know what would be used in everyday/spoken language?