kvedika

[thin crane]

Please be patient

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

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[wanton pasture]

Pretty sure the first correction is wrong

About ce sont, for like all the uses here it should be elles sont

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/cest-vs-il-est/

[storm tundra]

You mean orange? Color adjectives derived from nouns are invariable. Orange is one of them. There are exceptions though, like rose.

[wanton pasture]

What in the nonsense

[storm tundra]

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/guide/accord-des-adjectifs-de-couleur

[empty dagger]

so 'orangées' would have been right, but 'oranges' is not?

[storm tundra]

That is correct.

[empty dagger]

thanks :))

[empty dagger]

thank you :))

[storm tundra]

One more correction: une mémoire très spéciale.

[wanton pasture]

I'm having doubts about je regardais un oranger too

[storm tundra]

Or more like un souvenir très spécial.

[wanton pasture]

Should it be j'ai vu

[storm tundra]

As for là before où, it happens when you have two clauses involved.

[mellow moon]

It's correct: colours that come from nouns (orange, marron, fuchsia, turquoise) are invariable.

[mellow moon]

Ah, I was too slow.

[storm tundra]

Clause 1: j'habite
Clause 2: il fait trop chaud pour les oranges

[severe compass]

« Parfois, ce sont verts »
« parce que ce ne sont pas juste douces … ce sont aussi un peu acides. »
Should be « elles sont » because it refers to a noun that is feminine (oranges).

« Il y a quelques années, en voyage, je regardais un oranger »
I'm leaning towards « j'ai regardé » unless you kept seeing this one tree during your holidays.

« C'est une mémoire très spécial »
spécial refers to « une mémoire » so it should agree.

[empty dagger]

i'm sorry... i didn't get you

[storm tundra]

A clause is like a sentence.

[severe compass]

Basically, « où » has to refer to something. Take this sentence:
« C'est l'école où j'allais quand j'étais petit. »
Here, « où » refers to « l'école ». We can split this into two clauses or two sentences:
[1] « C'est l'école. »
[2] « J'allais à l'école quand j'étais petit. »
« où » replaces locations when we are heading towards or staying there.

We're adding « là » because « où » has nothing to refer to.
« … parce que où j'habite »
Where? Where do you live? There's nothing for « où » to replace or refer to. Because of that, we add the word « là » so that « où » has something to refer to.

[empty dagger]

what i got was that if I want to say, "where xyz happens, it is/there is abc" I would use là before où. but not if it was just "where [...]" is that correct?

[storm tundra]

That's about right. See Bertie's post above you.

[empty dagger]

ohhh okay thank you so much. that makes sense 🙂

[storm tundra]

Basically, là où = in the place where

[empty dagger]

I didn't get why I should use elles sont though. I watched a video by French with Pierre, and he said it was fine to use c'est in front of adjectives...

[severe compass]

You can think of « où » here as standing in for 'in/at/to which'.
« C'est l'école où j'allais quand j'étais petit. »
'It's the school to which I used to go when I was little.'

When we put in your original text, we can see the discrepancy:
« … parce que où j'habite »
'… because in/at which I live'
Where? Where do you live? Thus we add là (there):
« … parce que là où j'habite »
'… because there at which I live'

[severe compass]

« c'est » in front of adjectives refers to something abstract

« La mer, elle est belle »
=> We are referring to the sea itself

« La mer, c'est beau »
=> We're not referring to the sea itself but rather to the sea in a more abstract way like oh the sea as a concept is cool

Notice also that the adjective is masculine because it refers to « ce » which is neutral in gender

[empty dagger]

okay, I think I get it. jshdjf thanks everyone <333

[opal fulcrum]

For what it's worth, as a native I would probably pluralise "orange" as "oranges"

Same for "marrons"

They fall in the "rose" category for a lot of people now

[wanton pasture]

Yeah i think a lot of natives don't know about that rule