#JD
harsh gust
restive hawk
in spoken relaxed french, you only use nous as a stressed pronoun or as an object
never as the subject
halcyon lagoon
Yeah, I second fquel; nous is pretty dead in oral speech though its conjugation may live on the emphatic c’est structure
« C’est nous qui avons pris la décision, pas vous ! »
There’s no way around that outside of just inserting a tonic pronoun like « Nous, on a pris la décision, pas vous ! »
restive hawk
the imperative is also sometimes used in disons but that can be avoided
halcyon lagoon
Oh yeah the imperative
halcyon lagoon
the imperative is also sometimes used in *disons* but that can be avoided
How would you avoid that?
restive hawk
on va dire
halcyon lagoon
Oh you mean disons specifically
I thought you meant the first person plural imperative in general
restive hawk
i think it can always be avoided with on va, but honestly in casual contexts, not sure you hear the nous imperative besides disons
restive hawk
i guess people sometimes say allons-y
halcyon lagoon
like not on tv
TV can also approximate casual speech and I see it even there
restive hawk
but again on y va works just fine
restive hawk
TV can also approximate casual speech and I see it even there
i guess so, but i just think the gradiation of "formal" language is not stark in french
like i'm pretty sure i've heard people ce fut on french tv
even though that's like officially dead in the spoken language
halcyon lagoon
Ce fut is still used in set expressions
« Ce fut un plaisir »
Sure it’s fancy but I wouldn’t say that it was ‘dead’
restive hawk
well i guess that's my point which is that even forms which are technically dead in the spoken language like nous or passé simple are still used
in a way that has no equivalent in english
halcyon lagoon
Yeah sure