pouvoir

  • pouvoir overuse

    ByFast French

    If your French sounds correct but somehow “translated,” pouvoir is often part of the problem. English speakers reach for “can” constantly — for ability, permission, possibility, requests, and hedging all at once. French spreads these jobs across several different tools, so leaning on pouvoir the way you lean on “can” makes your French grammatically fine…

  • -oir verbs as nouns

    ByFast French

    A small group of French verbs ending in -oir can also stand alone as masculine nouns, usually preceded by le or l’. This happens because French allows an infinitive to be treated as a thing in its own right, much like English sometimes turns “to know” into “the knowing” in older or more formal writing….