#Grammar Correction
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Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
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.
Oh, here’s what it was supposed to be in English.
It was a cold day in the Summer. The air felt good. I walked on the street, seeing the different people who walked. A smile was on my face, I was happy. My attention moved from the street to a cafe.
Grammar Correction
Writer, eh? I'm one as well
I'm just going to correct all instances of « **e'**tait » as « était » because I wouldn't want to repeat myself.
C’est était un jour froid (1) en le été (2). L’air sentait bien (3). J’ai marché (4) en (5) la rue, voit (6) le personnes différente (7) qui à marché (4). Un sourire était en (8) moi (9) visage, j’ai était (10) heureux. Moi (9) attention à bengé (11) de la rue à un café
(1) Here, you're describing the weather. When describing weather, French uses the structure « il fait ». Ex: « Il faisait chaud ce jour-là (It was hot that day) ».
In addition, « était » is the imperfect of « être » meaning 'was'. « est », on the other hand, is the present meaning 'is'. Thus, by saying « C'est était », you're saying « It is was ».
(2) When we're describing things after the preposition « en », we tend to omit the article. « En été, nous allions au parc alors qu'en hiver, nous restions chez nous. (In summer, we used to go to the park whereas in winter, we used to stay indoors) ».
(3) « sentir » here means 'feel' in the sense of touching or experiencing something through the senses like « Je sens ton parfum (I smell your perfume) ; Il fait si froid qu'il ne sent plus ses orteils (It's so cold that he no longer feels his toes) ».
(4) The context here would be better with the imperfect than the perfect/compound past. The reasoning here is that you were describing a circumstance; you were doing this action while other things were also happening.
(5) Here, we would say « dans la rue ». Prepositions are infamously untranslateable so you just have to memorise what prepositions go with what verbs and in what context.
(6) We only conjugate verbs per subject; since we have one subject here and already have one conjugated verb (ai marché), we don't need to conjugate « voir » here.
(7) In the English excerpt, 'people' refers to multiple persons and it should be reflected here. In addition, the word « personnes » is feminine plural so its adjective « différente » should be feminine plural as well; it's singular here. Oh, and « différent » is placed before the noun: « de différentes peintures (some different paintings) ».
(8) I think we'd use « sur (on) » here.
(9) « moi » is the first person singular stressed pronoun. It is the 'me' in 'Me! I want to play!'. What you're looking for is the possessive « mon ».
(10) « J'ai » is 'I have' from the pronoun « je (I) » and the verb « ai (have) » so you can't have two verbs here. Look at (1). about « était » and « c'est ».
(11) Here, the word 'move' is not a physical action but a metaphorical one. « bouger » implies only physical. I suggest using « se déplacer » or « changer ».
Stressed/disjunctive/emphatic pronouns are used for emphasis. They exist in English, but are not always used in the same ways or for the same reasons.
My lesson will improve your knowledge of French possessive adjectives, which are used in front of nouns to indicate to whom or what those nouns belong.
A note on (9) vis-à-vis possessives. French possessives agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify. In English, they instead agree with the owner of that noun. See these examples:
'Jack loves his new car'
'Emily loves her new car'
'Jack loves his new computer'
'Emily loves her new computer'
In English, the possessive changes in view of the fact that the subject that owns/possesses the noun has changed. We have 'his' because of 'Jack' and 'her' because of 'Emily'.
« Jacques aime sa nouvelle voiture »
« Émilie aime sa nouvelle voiture »
« Jacques aime son nouvel ordinateur »
« Émilie aime son nouvel ordinateur »
In French, the possessive changes in view of the fact that the noun that the possessive modifies has changed. We don't care about « Jacques » or « Émilie »; rather, we care about « la voiture » and « l'ordinateur ».
However, there's a slight wrinkle when it comes to « attention ». « attention » is a feminine noun so you'd expect that you have « ma », right? Well, using the feminine « ma » would cause a hiatus or pause between the two vowels: « ma attention ». Because of that, French would rather you switch the possessive to the masculine to avoid this gap: « mon attention ». Do note that this is just to avoid hiatus; the noun itself remains feminine. It's evident when you add adjectives: « Son attention froide (Her cold attention) ».
(2) we omit the preposition, not the article
L'été
Ig I'd say d'été there
(3) okay? What matters here is it should be sentait bon, not bien
Wait it's felt good in English
Yeah idk how to say felt good
Était agréable ?
« l'air sentait bon » would mean 'the air smelled nice'
valid
but not the meaning of the English text
I would've said « l'air était agréable »
Yeah i hadn't seen the English version mb
Fair enough, if you were using « c'était une belle journée », « d'été » makes more sense
but I did recommend « il fait » which was why I instead corrected it to « en été »
I kinda wanted to answer that as well but I was struggling to explain it
It happens at the same time as another action
So -ant
Idk im not as good at explaining xd
Thank you for all the help! What’s the difference between voir and voyant?
voir = to see
voyant is… complicated
Je suis voyant. I am complicated
Kidding of course, I’ll just google and try to figure out haha
Voyant is like seeing
In this context
In English, we can use the present participle -ing to describe a bunch of stuff that the French participle -ant just can't
Voyant as a noun is different
« voyant » does mean 'seeing'
Je suis voyant you could translate word for word and it'd be I'm seeing but that present tense doesn't exist in french
but I struggle to explain why we would use the present participle here in a way that doesn't involve English
Woa you used 4 between 7 and 8 xd
It's pointed out before in « j'ai marché en la rue »
a smile was on my face
Un sourire était sur mon visage
But it's more natural to say j'avais le sourire aux lèvres
Is that roughly translated to “I had the smile on the face?”
Les lèvres = the lips
'I had a smile on my lips'
literally translated as 'I had the smile to the lips'
Gets out of chair What da hell
Well let it come, I’ll gladly accept corrections.
Read thru what bertgpt wrote, see if you can figure out l'imparfait
Alrighty
Okay looking into it, what’s the literal translation for this?
Elle écoutait la musique.
Either 'she was listening to the music' or 'she used to listen to the music'
Huh, okay. I think I’m starting to understand l’imparfait then
écouter takes a direct object in French whereas its English equivalent, 'to listen', takes an indirect object (we listen to something)
Keep in mind it may be translated as a simple past in English
But yea the idea is she was listening
Example: I went to school
Without context, this can be passé composé (je suis allé à l'école) or imparfait (j'allais à l'école)
It depends on the overall context
"when my grandpa was little he went to school by foot"
Imparfait
Because it was repeated an undefined amount of times
I went to school that morning
=> 'That morning' is a specific time indicator (that morning may not be the same as any other mornings) so passé composé
I went to school every day
=> 'Every day' means habit so imparfait
Just to be clear, imparfait is just imperfect in French right? XD
yes