some problems with French

May I remain the mentioned question:

>If something is less than any else what's the best way to point it out:
"cet objet est plus petit que qch"
"cet objet est moins grand que qch"
or may be even:
"cet objet est moins petit que qch"
?

>Anyway you can put accents by copying it in the "caracthers map" of your OS.

In the Word I usually press Ctrl+' or `or ^ depending on the necessary accent. And next the chosen letter.

The better is first one : cet objet est plus petit que qch (quelque chose).

Others, even though correct, they are anecdotal!

>The better is first one : cet objet est plus petit que qch (quelque chose).

Thank you, Francis. At last I got it. Isn't it strange that such a simple thing is hardly mentioned in any student book?

Now, I've prepared a short report on current news, can you help a little with mistakes:

Cette annèe, apres “le monetization des privilèges” est commencé, les pensionnées Rousse ont trouvé que ils sont dans à une telle merde enseigne que même cette partisans ordinaires de Poutine n’ont pas pu tolérer le plus. Révoltes de masse se sont passé aux grands villes. Le gouvernement a dispersé les manifestations férocement. Les douzaines des protestataires sont etés arrêtés et condamné à pénalité. Il a donné naissance a l'anecdote: “Depuis le 1er Janvier tout les privilèges ont à étre succédé aux payements monétaires. Mais depuis le 10ieme Janvier tout les payements monétaires ont à étre succédé aux pénalités monétaires”.

?

And an English copy to make it more understandable:

This year, after the “monetization of privileges” got started, Russian pensioners found themselves in the so deep asshole that even these usual supporters of Putin couldn’t tolerate anymore. Mass protest actions have taken place in some big cities. The government has broken them up very harshly, dozens of protesters have been arrested and sentenced to fines. Which has brought forth a new joke: “Since the 1st January all the privileges were to be replaced with money payments, but since the 10th January all the money payments are to be replaced with money fines”.

Merci beaucoup (damn, at last I remembered this word's spelling ).

And if you have good French jokes about the current news, they are bloody wellcome.

I hope this will fit :

Cette année, après le début de la « monétisation des privilèges", les retraités Russes se sont trouvés dans une telle merde (dans des situations si critiques) que même les partisans ordinaires de Poutine n'ont pu en tolérer davantage.

Des manifestations de masse ont eu lieu dans les grandes villes.

Le gouvernement a durement réprimé ces manifestations.

Des dizaines de manifestants sont étés arrêtés et condamnés à des amendes.

Ceci a donné naissance à l'anecdote suivante :
« Depuis le 1er janvier les paiements monétaires ont succédé aux privilèges.
Mais depuis le 10 janvier les pénalités monétaires ont succédé aux paiements monétaires. »

Minor comment, possibly wrong:

line 2 "..se sont enbourbes.." ou "se sont retrouves"

Wondering essentially here, Francis, if you don't follow the original author's syntax too conscientiously - personally would have started without the temporal clause. What IS the original language, btw, wondered as the syntactical parsing isn't typical of any indoeuropean languages I know, and I'm sorry to say I know none of the slavic languages.

HoFt,

Even though I'm not used to explain these "technicalities" in english I'm going to try :

I, sure, could omit the temporal clause : Cette année.

But I understand you say so because you have read the post to the end.

Then you have learnt that after 1st january the retired people had problems, which you probably didn't know as you start reading.

Therefore you can now say temporal clause can be omited.

Meanwhile, you probaly noted that the sentence "après le début de la monétisation des privilèges" is between commas.

This means that this sentence could be oblitered.

Then, if you omit the temporal clause, the remaining sentence is "lost in time" hence failing to meet our purpose.

As for your "se sont retrouvés". I prefer "se sont trouvés" as I dont know if they knew such a situation in the past.

Anyway, as we are not writing a doctorate thesis, we can allow ourselves some minor imperfections :wink:

Eh oui, nor am I a candidate for the Academie Francaise! Thanks.

>I hope this will fit :

Thank you Francis, as usually a good help.

Now some great news for all who contributed to that great mystery of year. You may disbelieve but finally I got the transcript: “Il n’y a pas de douche mais ça va pour un an” ! A little surprising, isn’t it? Anyway the sense is still unclear. She wants no shower, but only for a year? How can a shower appear in the room in the second year?

And I have another mind-breaking phrase I have met in a book recently and can’t make tails or heads of it:
“Les rois carolingiens qui succédèrent à Charlemagne n’étaient que des barons investis du titre de roi, sans autre pouvoir que celui qu’ils pouvaient exercer dans leur propre domaine, pauvre et divisé de surcroit.”

Can you help with translation?

Also some problem with grammar. There are two similar sentences in the text book:

1 Elle ouvre de grands yeaux.

2 On a des grosses oreilles.

Pay you attention: in the first case there’s “de”, but in the 2nd – “des”. AFAIK if there’s an adjective before a noun we replade the article “des” by “de”. So, why is it wrong for the 2nd case?

And please can’t you translate a joke about health:

“Nobody now trusts the official medicine. Because ones who used to all have died.”

Many thanks in advance.

Without the context, we can never know. But we know the context, this girl is staying in this room while studying in France.

And we can assume it's only for a year. She wants a shower but there is any.

So we understand the meaning of the sentence : There's no shower but it will fit for a year.



This I can translate, meanwhile some of other english-speaking friends are welcome to polish the translation.

Carolingian kings, successors of Charlemagne, were no more than barons invested with the title of kings, with no other power than that they could exert on their own domain, and, what is more, poor and divided.



The second sentence is erroneous.

The rule is : you use indefinite de when adjective comes before the noun. Otherwise you use indefinite des

Hence you say:

on a de grosses oreilles
or
on a des oreilles grosses



Personne ne croit la médecine d'état. Tous ceux qui y croyent sont morts.

As usually many thanks, Francis. Your help is very useful.

1 >n’ont pu en tolérer

What are the cases when we should use an infinitive so: “de tolérer” or “à tolérer”?

>dans les grandes villes.

Here I’m not sure, the actions have been noticed in many big cities, but far from all. Isn’t there “des” more appropriate?

>Des dizaines de manifestants

Now another case. Here we talk about THE demonstrators (les manifestants). So what’s wrong with “des manifestants” (as de+les=des)?

2 What’s the best choice to say “it was times (meaning era, period) of the Khun-Vei-Binhs” (my report was about Chinese history):

il/ce/ça/ils était/étaient/est été le temp/les temps des/aux KVBs

?

I remember that when it was time to hang Kuchma we said:

"Il est temps de prendre". But the teacher says it's not the same case.

3 One political joke I’ve heard recently:

Mr. Putin, is it true that you were involved in the assassination of Zurab Zhvania? – In no way. I proposed simply to shoot him down.

Can you translate it please?

4 One gal of our group has read a French fairy-tale recently. I’m sure you must have heard it too. There was one guy who used to repeat constantly: wool in nose, wool on legs, wool in head etc. (les poils au nez, les poils aux jambes…). The gal (and me also) couldn’t understand what this guy wanted to express: was it some kind of damns?

Many thanks in advance.

One problem more. A phrase from a description of vacations:

Le premier jour, il a fait un temps orageux...

or it's better

...il faisait un temps orageux...

I must have irritated Francis too much by my endless stupidness. What a pity.

No, you dont! I'll be back soon!

Well well, let's see...

>"dans les grandes villes" => if your big cities are not specified (clearly identified), you should use "des grandes villes" (we don't know which ones)

>"Des dizaines de manifestants" is not wrong in itself (it depends on the context, so be more precise please)

>"It was times of the Khun-Vei-Binhs" = "C'était au temps des KVBs"
=> when refering to an era, we usually say "au temps de qqch"

>Mr. Putin, is it true that you were involved in the assassination of Zurab Zhvania? - In no way. I proposed simply to shoot him down.
=> M. Putin, est-il vrai que vous avez été impliqué dans l'assassinat de Zurab Zhvania? -Absolument pas. J'ai simplment proposé de le tuer.

>"poils aux" is a kind of joke. Hmm... In fact, it's a way to make (very poor bud sometimes funny) poetry, like "Je suis là, poil aux bras"
(By the way, which fairy tale was it?)

>"Le premier jour il faisait/ il a fait" are both valid (it depends on the context)

Thank you, Radical Edward

>By the way, which fairy tale was it?)

I don't know the title. As far as I remember the subject is: there is a bloody monster eating everyone around until some gal wastes him off and rips his belly, in the belly she sees a marvellous prince and asks him, what hell he has been doing there, and the prince answers: poils au nez, poils aux pieds... etc.

>(it depends on the context, so be more precise please)

That's where we started to discuss it:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1123414#1123346

Now I've completed the first course of beginner. It's time for the next level. I hope, I may count on your further help, guys.

Can I say in French:

"Êtes-vous vous levè tôt?"

?

You can say in french : êtes-vous un lève-tôt?
(no accents on capitals)

This means an early riser.

The task looked so:

>Mettez ces phrases au passé composé:

>Vous vous levez tôt?

One answer can be:

>Vous vous êtes levé tôt?

(lets suppose this is said about a single guy)

But can I also use inversion here?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can say :

Vous vous êtes levé tôt? (usual)

or

Vous êtes-vous levé tôt? (elaborated)

My French courses are over, and no new are gonna take place anywhere within a distance of 100 miles. So now I have bad times to learn French on my own. My student book wants me to write a couple of essays after every lesson, but this would be of no use unless some generous person checks it. And it seems our local francophonies are often too busy to help.

In two words can I count on help in grammar if I post one or two short (about 10 sentences) reports a week? I will be bloody grateful, and my help in Russian is to be provided.