#adorednn

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next crownBOT
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Please be patient

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frozen cliff
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I'll start with the « votre » bit. These are called possessive adjectives. They agree to the noun they modify in gender and number.

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The difference between French and English possessives is that they agree with different things. For French possessives, they agree with the noun while English ones agree with the possessor. An example:
'John can buy his new car thanks to his high salary .'
'Emily can buy her new car thanks to her high salary.'
As we can see, the switch from 'his' to 'her' depends on who these objects belong to. 'his' is with John because he's a man while 'her' is with Emily because she's a woman. If we translate that into French, we have a different concept:
« Jean peut acheter sa nouvelle voiture grâce à son salaire élevé. »
« Émilie peut acheter sa nouvelle voiture grâce à son salaire élevé. »
Here, the possessives instead agree with the nouns they modify; « voiture » is feminine so anything modifying that is feminine as well while « salaire » is masculine so everything modifying that is masculine.

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I highlighted the adjectives too because possessives behave like adjectives

teal jungle
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so basically you added sa because the word car is femenine

frozen cliff
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mmhm

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and son because the word salary is masculine

teal jungle
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oh ok

frozen cliff
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and it will always be « sa voiture » because the possessive fits the noun, not the possessor

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Notice that switching the possessors changed the gender in English but changed nothing in French

teal jungle
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yeah

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thanks for taking your time to explain my question bertie 👍🏼 appreciate it immensely !

frozen cliff
teal jungle
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okie

frozen cliff
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but there's a bigger and more general issue at play: prepositions do NOT translate

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sometimes they do, sometimes they don't

teal jungle
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yeah

frozen cliff
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so you have to get into the habit of relying on the French way instead of the English way or whatever your native language is

teal jungle
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okay

frozen cliff
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because English may differentiate things that French doesn't and vice-versa

teal jungle
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ty for the link

frozen cliff
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An example that comes to mind is the preposition 'for' in English to describe time. The preposition can be used whenever, be it in the past (1), the present (2), the future (3), or something the started in the past and continues to this day (4).
(1) 'He went to Paris for three days.'
(2) 'I'm in London for one night.'
(3) 'Anna will be spending her holidays in Spain for a month.'
(4) 'I've been living in Paris for five months.'

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These require different prepositions in French. The French equivalent for 'for', « pour », only works for the present and future. If you want the past, you have to use « pendant (during) ». That's (1), (2), and (3) finished, but what about (4). Here, it's not just a preposition change but a structure change as well. Instead of using « pour », French will use « depuis (since) ».
In addition, notice that in English we use the present perfect progressive, 'to have been verb-ing' to mark that the living in Paris started out five months ago and continues to this day. In French, it didn't matter that it started five months ago; I'm still living there, so it'll use the present (4) instead.
(1) « Il est allé à Paris pendant trois jours. »
(2) « Je suis à Londres pour une nuit. »
(3) « Anna passera ses vacances en Espagne pour un mois. »
(4) « J'habite à Paris depuis cinq mois. »

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https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/expressing-for-duration-with-either-pendant-durant-depuis-or-pour

Kwiziq French
Pendant, durant, depuis, pour = for +[duration] | French Grammar | ...

Learn about Expressing for + [duration] in French with either pendant/durant/depuis/pour (French Prepositions of Time) and get fluent faster with Kwiziq French. Access a personalised study list, thousands of test questions, grammar lessons and reading, writing and listening exercises. Find your fluent French!

teal jungle
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thanks for explaining that in depth!

frozen cliff
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Another one is just how each verb has its own logic with the prepositions. For some verbs, they align well with their main English translations but for some others, they don't.

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A good example is « parler (to speak/talk) | penser (to think) »

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In the article I've sent you about prepositions, you will have learnt that « à » is generally translated as 'to' while « de » is translated as 'of/about'. For « parler », this aligns pretty well.
« Je veux parler à Marie de cette tâche. »
'I want to talk to Marie about this task.'
For « penser », both « à » and « de » are translated by the English preposition 'about':
« Tu penses encore à Marie, n'est-ce pas ? »
'You're still thinking about Marie, aren't you?'
« Je sais ce que tu penses de Marie. »
'I know what you're thinking about Marie.'

If they're both translated by 'about', what's the difference? Well, the version with « à » is just about thinking as in you have an image of something or someone in your head. The version with « de », meanwhile, is about your opinion of whatever it is you're thinking about. It's a subtle difference.
« Tu penses encore à Marie, n'est-ce pas ? »
=> You have Marie in your head; maybe it's her appearance, the stuff she does, etc.
« Je sais ce que tu penses de Marie. »
=> You have your opinions about Marie; she's cute but a bit clumsy.