arrêter and s’arrêter both relate to stopping, but they are used in different ways. The key point is simple: 1) arrêter meaning “to stop something” arrêter is used when a person causes something else to stop. This includes stopping an activity: You can think of it as acting on something. 2) arrêter meaning “to arrest”…
Avoir l’air and avoir l’air de are common French expressions used to describe how something or someone seems. They link what is seen or felt to an idea or guess. The first is followed by an adjective or noun. The second is followed by a verb in the infinitive. Literal meaning Word for word, avoir…
French feminine nouns ending in eur are a different group from the masculine ones. They almost never come from English words for people or machines. Instead, they are words for qualities, feelings, or abstract ideas. The English cousins of these words often end in -or (like color, horror) but sometimes in -ness or other endings….
French nouns ending in eur often come from English words ending in er or or. This happens when the words are for jobs, machines, or people who do something. French takes the English word and changes the ending to match its own way of spelling and saying things. The gender is almost always masculine. Here…
In French, the position of adjectives depends on whether the adjective is normally placed before or after the noun. When a noun is described by two or more adjectives, the rules can seem tricky, but some patterns help. adjectives that usually come before the noun Some common short adjectives come before the noun. These include…
English uses the word corner in several ways. It can mean the place where two walls meet, the point where two streets meet, the edge of a room, or a quiet or hidden spot. French does not rely on a single word for all these uses. The most common translations are le coin and l’angle….
The term hors d’oeuvres refers to small dishes of food served before a meal. They are meant to be eaten in one or two bites. They are often passed around on trays at parties or set out on a table for guests to take for themselves. The idea is to take the edge off hunger…
French present participles do not agree in gender and number. The French present participle is invariable. It does not change to show masculine or feminine, singular or plural. But there is one point of confusion. The present participle can look the same as a verbal adjective. The verbal adjective does agree. Present participle versus verbal…
People learning French often notice something strange. Some sentences look wrong, because two complete thoughts sit on either side of a comma. There is no connecting word, no semicolon, no em dash — just a comma separating them. In English, this is called a run on sentence, or a comma splice. It’s regarded as an…
French adverb placement follows rules. It is not the same as English. Adverbs can go before or after the verb. They can also start or end a sentence. Their place often depends on the type of adverb and the tense. Short adverbs with simple tenses Most short adverbs go right after the verb in simple…