French sentences explained in plain English - Ending sentences in a preposition in French.

[@amjad8433]

This is why I love this channel. You focus on very important topics that natives don't explain well or don't explain them at all. Thank you so much, it really clears up a lot of things. Your style of teaching is excellent, keep it up!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

I'm so happy that you get exactly the benefits that I try to give you. I will continue! Bon français Amjad!

[@PanglossDr]

It is exactly the same in correct English. The way I was taught it in the 1950s was 'A preposition is something you never end a sentence with'. French would be easy if people spoke English correctly. However, there are many cases where it sounds ridiculous. 'Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.'

[@PanglossDr]

@Real Aiglon You display a total ignorance of language and English in particular. And, daring to call the people who codified the language, they didn't make it up, as ignorant shows you to be exceptionally arrogant and stupid.

[@michelpilon8171]

You are right! Many years ago I bought a book to improve my English and in that book it said that correct English sentences should never end with a preposition.

[@NibblyPig]

I think some of these examples are equivalent in English, if you say 'I need a cat' then 'besoin un chat' indeed doesn't work because it needs de, but if we mimic the structure in french, then we need it in both. "J'ai besoin d'un chat" is the same as "I have need of a cat". So I think the earlier point about making things sound posh "The table on which I put my mug" then you can keep thinking you're posh and say "I have need of a video on french grammar". Probably doesn't work for everything but it helps me immensely. Such a good video though I didn't know any of this beforehand!

[@annickfarissier2922]

Je suis francophone de naissance mais , dans mon travail, je dois enseigner en français à de jeunes enfants non francophones. Vos vidéos sont une "mine" pour moi car elles me permettent de mieux comprendre quelles sont les difficultés rencontrées par des élèves devant utiliser le français comme langue de scolarisation et ainsi de mieux pouvoir les aider. Bravo, very good job!

[@martinneumann7783]

As a German I realised that the French grammar is a little bit closer to my own language than to English. But on this channel I benefit from the English explanations of French. I do learn both languages. Great!

[@aaronsmiley478]

J’aime bien cette vidéo! A propos de la phrase vous avez utilisé pour décrire "lequel" , je pense pas que la phrase contiendrai pas " mise". Il faut pas qu’on fasse l’accord parce que le sujet direct de le verbe mettre se trouve après le verbe. Donc on dirait "j’ai mis"

[@kristymoir425]

Ooft that one was heavy going, but certainly cleared up ‘dont’ for me! One thing I would say with matching to English where possible is for ‘avoir besoin de quelquechose’ - I’ve always thought of it to be ‘to have need of something’...so the ‘de’ is still an ‘of’, although maybe not a common way to say it in English.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Yes that's a great way to look at it. Whatever helps form that connection in your brain, do it!

[@CallumRichardsPHP]

Thank you for explaining this so clearly, I love the logical way you figure out how to use English structure to transition into french, that makes it so much easier!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Avec grand plaisir, Callum :)

[@lesfreresdelaquote1176]

Actually there is another way to see it: "lequel" is actually "le+quel" and "which" directly translates in "quel"... Basically, it is the same as translating "lequel" into "the which". Hence the reason why questions involving these prepositions start with "Quel": "Sur quelle table as-tu posé ta tasse?". In this case, we drop the determiner since this slot is already filled with "quelle".

[@vertigo35000]

Woaw! I've never noticed that the relative pronoun "dont" is used only with verbs wich need the preposition "de". It's so natural for me. So thank you for teaching me my own speaking! French is so weird 😱

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

De rien :). It's s hard for us English speakers because we use "whose, of which, of whom.." so rarely now.

[@NuitÉtoilée-0]

Le français n'est pas bizarre, il est juste différent (de l'anglais). 🙃

[@ericlind6581]

English is actually weirder. We have insane constructions like double prepositions…”he keeps going on on that subject”.

[@Furienna]

And isn't "où" used in the same way with verbs, which need "à"?

[@helmutR43]

Congratulation, Alex! As a former teacher of English "je suis tout à fait d'accord" as to translating when necessary and helpful. Apart from that: great job taking your students from step 1 to step 4. Carry on!

[@brummiesalteno-81]

Thanks again Alex. Quite often I use my Spanish to try to understand the French sentance structure. In these cases it didn't work well and now I realise why. It's been really helpful to understand this from an 'old fashioned' English perspective. I think I'll still struggle with dont for a while though!

[@annewilliams2333]

OMG is this the best explanation of the use of relative pronouns et prepositions dans le monde entier? congratulations - good examples well explained. please dont (ha) be afraid to go to more complex grammar - nous l’adorons … laquelle lequel bisous

[@cristinapoyalcaliz5064]

J'adore votre ton de voix et votre vitesse lorsque vous parlez, merci beaucoup.

[@jwally7523]

Praise KZbin for making this video magically show on my frontpage

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Praise!

[@igzibi1]

Great videos, thanks a lot. On my french classes, teacher explains all in...french 😀 And if i knew french so well to understand explanations, well, then i would not need classes. Keep up, this is great

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

There are pros and cons to everything. Overall, your listening and understanding will benefit so much from being taught in French. I hope to fill in the gaps in English about specific points that we miss in classes taught in French :)

[@86daily]

Here it's me the Frenchmen that has lived very little in France. You should try this fraise with your French girl friend when you're ready to go somewhere. " Alons y, frapon la route!" See what happens. I first heard this in Canada Montreal from and English co worker. Lots of Love J'apresi vos effort car c'est une bonne praticque pour moi a vous entendre parler.

[@nicoleguy768]

This is so interesting and has really made sense. My mum spoke English as a second language and always corrected us when we ended our sentences with a preposition. It set her teeth on edge. Now I really understand why. This video ties in so well with that so between you and my late maman, I feel now I might make more progress.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

So happy to have given you a "déclic" moment in your French, Nicole.

[@edgardtitus3372]

Thank you for this essential video for individual s serious about learning French On the french learners need to master the cortrct use of the relative pronoun "dont" it would be advisable to do a lesson on correct word order of relative clauses that may follow the relative pronoun "dont" .... my focus here is on those relative clauses that contain objective case elements after the use of "dont" In high school... a sentence like "The man whose wallet I found came to see me " I initially translated as : L"homme dont le portefeiiille j'ai trouve est venu me voir" On checking my homework... my parents ... both fluent French speakers.. corrected my sentence to read "L'homme dont j'ai trouve le portrfeuil est venu me voir" Lesson here... word order in the clause created by "dont" takes on a subject... verb.. object format instead of the more convoluted word order needed to express the same idea in English ... my mistake was using that convoluted :relative clause with object" english word order to translatethe idea to french ... as they apply to the use of the relartive pronoun "dont"re creating thereby creating the oddity of a french sentence my parents were keen to pick up and correct me on Thought these contrasting features of both languages would be helpful to your followers who are serious about learning and using correct french ...

[@edgardtitus3372]

Forgive the disjointed appearance of ideas expressed here.. I hit send accidentally b4 proofreading I think my message was understood noneless Thank you

[@charlesleninja]

Very good video, but at 12:45 you mention "La table sur laquelle j'ai misE la tasse" You must not agree the past participle here as the direct object is after it, kind of a really stange French rule but yeah, only mistake I spotted

[@JornBebar]

Congrats! You mastered a subtle thing in French that even native speakers can struggle with. Several of my co-workers get "la chose dont je t'ai parlé" wrong, and come up with "la chose que je t'ai parlé". You can be very proud of yourself!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

So true! Same with "avoir besoin de". I hear "avoir besoin que" from time to time!

[@jeromevoiron1137]

@@FrenchinPlainSight Hum, it depends in that case. "J"aurais besoin que tu viennes" is perfectly correct (I'd need you to come over). You can't use "de" here for instance.

[@NuitÉtoilée-0]

@@FrenchinPlainSight Ah oui mais attention ! J'ai besoin DE toi. Mais : J'ai besoin QUE tu sois là. 🙃 (sinon c'est pas rigolo 😆.)

[@biglovewildlifesanctuary4379]

Oh, thank goddess!! For a year, I've been grumbling at Duolingo for its dreadful English, while I relearn French! I'm a native-speaking (American) English grammar snob. I naturally speak English the way that you describe as a hack, and I'd never dare dangle a preposition. (Don't get me started on split infinitives.) 😁 But, when DuoL gives one word choices, it serves up English 💩. Grrrr. I feel bad for those learning English (say from French) through DuoL, because it could be so much easier if the English that is taught was proper English. Hard to beat Duolingo for sheer repetition (super important for retention). But you, Sir, are slaying the actual teaching with your patient and clear explanations. Much appreciated. 👏 Allons-y! #subscriber

[@katehobbs2008]

The real issue here is that, if you speak English properly, all this is straightforward and natural. We just lazily elide so many propositions.

[@meganmartinaux6407]

Watched this video yesterday and again now, absolutely invaluable and learnt a lot from you, I even had to pause as it’s quite intense and requires concentration. Again, thank you so much, you are really an excellent teacher and who would’ve thought to go into so much detail to explain it to the tee. Wishing you so much success in your business, thank you for helping us learn Alex. I wish everyone knew you Alex!

[@heightwidth]

The best video (for an English speaker) about French relative pronouns that I’d seen. Bravo

[@brentbaumgartner1198]

I am a 'lapsed' French speaker/student and I really appreciate your explanations. They just make a lot of sense to me. Thanks so much!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Thanks that means so much. Before I put stuff on KZbin I thought it was just me in the world who loved to geek out on French. I've found my people. Thanks for being here Brent.

[@lisaahmari7199]

Thank you for beng so sincere and humble! This was really helpful!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You're welcome. Stick around for more 😊

[@ffhdfxgvfhhx8065]

I feel lucky that my mother tongue is Ukrainian, end we rather had to struggle with English prepositions that had to be put at the end of the sentence than with French variant of the things :) That makes studying different languages more interesting :)

[@manonbimmel3985]

Your videos are superb, merci.

[@cefnonn]

A good topic. It can trip me up, too . Un thème linguistique dont on parle trop peu! Bravo : )

[@richardorr4949]

What a great video!! Thanks - beautiful, elegant explanation

[@cmolodiets]

In french, the word "snack" means "snack bar". To talk about the food you eat between regular meals, use the word "en-cas", to talk about any light, hasty, unelaborated meal use the word "casse-croute" To complete what you said (and make it uselessly complexe), after a "locution prépositive", "duquelle/ de laquelle/ desquels/ desquelles" is mandatory instead of "dont"

[@TheZmusicGroup]

Ça se dit, "snack", notamment pour parler de la junk-food vendue dans les distributeurs. "Un p'tit snack" dans ma tête ça peut représenter un paquet de chips ou une barre de céréales.

[@NuitÉtoilée-0]

@@TheZmusicGroup Oui mais Cmolodiets a raison, on utiliserait pas snack pour une glace... En-cas, collation, goûter, douceur... En fonction du contexte.

[@sallyhodder2426]

Using English logic is very helpful for me . Merci.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You are welcome Sally!

[@myesha9416]

This is very helpful and relative information. Thank you.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You're so welcome!

[@theterminator8854]

Thanks a lot, this is the best on learning French, my native language is spanish and i used spanish to learn english, thanks a lot again

[@philippenachtergal6077]

19:44 Remémorer follows the same structure as to Remember and means about the same thing but not quite. It's not a very common verb in French and it implies that you are thinking about, maybe "living again" something. You can "remémorer les vacances passées" but you can't really "remémorer où j'ai mis mes clefs" (unless you are really remembering the moment where you placed your keys and want to insist on that)

[@ARather42]

So basically in french you HAVE to have a word linking independent clauses (been really studying these and each day I have more lightbulbs)

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You put it better grammatically than I could! Yes I think so.

[@MissChrisBee]

This was really good Alex. I love the way you relate things to English when you can to make it easier to understand. This really helps me. Thank you!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You're so welcome!

[@Earlofmar1]

I think I found this video just at the right time to transform/advance my French. I am certainly going to play this a few times and think more about escaping the basic sentence structure I have been using to date.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Glad to hear it's useful. Rewatching is definitely a good tactic. There's no way our brains can retain all this technical information first or even the 5th time.

[@LaraZannatF]

if only gcse and a-level french students knew about this channel, more of us would actually be able to speak better french at the end on the 5 yrs

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Haha. I did GCSE French and scraped a B somehow. Then French came back into my life organically when I was 27. :D

[@orrd]

Another great video. This channel is the best French instruction I've found so far on KZbin.

[@CurtisMontague]

Alex, thank you for this more advanced topic. To be honest, I think subconsciously I restructure my French sentences to avoid lequel and dont, and I shouldn’t. I shall make it a goal to be more aware of these sentence structures and use them to make my French sound even more natural. It’s one of the more difficult topics, but you explained it wonderfully. Keep up the great work!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Restructuring is a great skill to have because it keeps things moving along. But little by little, do exactly as you plan: make a goal to work specifically on things to want to improve. Happy to have sparked a new idea Curtis :)

[@slicksalmon6948]

Very interesting, thank you. I appreciate you tying your explanation to how things are phrased in English.

[@karynbenjamin4594]

That was awesome!finally get it!

[@Stouter2]

thanks for your excellent videos mate. wish I had found you earlier. This has really cleared up a lot of confusion for me, especially with the dreaded preposition 'dont'. Thanks for the good work! Keep it up!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

I'm very happy to read that Sebastian. Good to have you here!

[@Furienna]

"Dont" is actually a pronominal adverb and not a preposition though.

[@lyndamoore1626]

Thanks!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Merci Lynda !

[@nwoodall8278]

DONT - my nemesis too! Brilliant video. The best source have found to tackle this tricky block to talking and thinking in French. Thanks this is a great channel.

[@markhathaway9456]

This is an excellent video lesson. One addition which may have helped is a graphic showing the 4 parts and checking them off as you go. Merci.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

That's true! I was so tired from the edit that I couldn't add any more haha.

[@balwinderkaurbomrah1677]

Very useful

[@philosophygeek551]

A really good and helpful video on some very tricky points of French grammar. Thanks for posting.

[@notaname8140]

I've actually noticed a few times that French often has an interesting similarity to starchy old English, for example the musical Notre Dame de Paris has a song with the line "la couleur de ma peau contre celle de ta peau" which translates literally as "the colour of my skin against that of your skin", which is a perfectly valid English sentence, but "that of" is very old fashioned now, we would probably just say "against yours"

[@alannohlgren]

Thank you, Alex. I'm en accord. A certain amount of grammatical comparison can be so helpful. We learn, from experience, that direct, word by word translations are useless & lead us often to absurd errors. But astute analysis of grammatical constructions, in the two languages, can indeed be so helpful, dont cette vidéo est un bon exemple (whew!). Merci, chef!

[@michaelwhite1322]

Une excellente vidéo !

[@johncole7533]

Excellent video . . . Best I’ve seen.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Thanks!

[@tracynguyen7309]

Yes plz talk about qui/que!

[@philippenachtergal6077]

23:22 That is avoided because ambiguous. The matching of the times is also off If you want to say that at least some of them were not serious, you would rather say: Les erreurs dont je me suis rendu compte n'étaient pas toutes graves If you want to say that none of them were serious: Aucune des erreurs dont je me suis rendu compte n'était grave. (n'était and not n'étaient because aucune is singular and considered the subject. You have to use "aucune" and not "aucunes" because "aucuns" and "aucunes" are only used with a noun that is always plural or a noun for which the singular form has a different meaning than the plural form. Aucun etc is a bit though grammatically)

[@joanneshapiro8360]

Thanks so much for the excellent and helpful explanations. Love your videos and teaching

[@michelpilon8171]

Bonjour, très bonne vidéo. I want to answer the issue with the past participle. La table sur laquelle j’ai MIS la tasse. And not MISE. The rule for the participle has to do with the direct object. Here the direct object LA TASSE is located AFTER the participle so there is no gender association. The rule is: J’ai mis QUOI? la tasse which is located after the participle, so no gender agreement. But we would have had gender agreement for: La tasse que j’ai MISE sur la table. J’ai mis QUOI? La tasse which is located BEFORE the participle, so ther is gender agreement. Hope it helps. Salutations from Québec!

[@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643]

Dont = de que/de quoi/de qui

[@Torontogal777]

Very useful video, thank you. Yes, please make a video about: sur lequel, par lequel, sous lequel...etc.

[@HRAZZI]

cette vidéo est superb pour ceux qui cherchant de cette truque. Thank you and I will check if you did the other video

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Pas encore ! Bientôt

[@eskka4853]

"La table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse". "La table sur laquelle je l'ai mise". Au passé composé, on n'accorde pas le participe passé si on emploie l'auxiliaire avoir, sauf si le COD (complément d'objet direct) est placé avant le verbe. (l' dans le second exemple). (Sorry to explain that in French instead of English)

[@Marie.b]

I'm.doing the rounds again. Was here 2y ago, in between and now back again. I thinks that's a positive :D

[@shamalkaprabashini4278]

I love this video

[@K0KIGaming]

"La table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse" is the correct one-> 1/The action of "mettre" is done by me on "tasse" (COD), so the genre and number of "table" have no influence on the past participle of "mettre". 2/The verb "mettre" use the "avoir" auxiliary, and the thing being put on the table ("tasse" here) is after the verb "mettre" so it does not matter if it is masculine/feminine or singular/plural, it will always be "j'ai mis". Some examples, when COD is before vs after the past participle: La table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tarte / La tarte que j'ai misE sur la table As-tu mis les tartelettes sur la table ? / Je les ai déjà misES au four! La table sur laquelle j'ai posé la tasse / Les tasses que j'ai posÉES sur la table Yeah French can be pretty ridiculous sometimes....

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Amazingly detailed and clear. Thank you! I'm going to have to process this :)

[@Stouter2]

@@FrenchinPlainSight I sincerely apologies KOKI...seems like I need both French and English Lessons. I have since removed my stupid comment.

[@chemfloflo6374]

@@FrenchinPlainSight it is a crazy rule that has been made totally out of scratch, artificially, just to complicate things on purpose (!) back in the days... There is no real logical reason for this rule and it is actually maybe the less applied rule ever. Orally it is often forgotten except for common verbs like faire and mettre. This rule has always been more or less contested/known and its application has been difficult in history. Basically, past participles never agree when the auxilliary is "avoir", except when the direct object of the verb (not the subject) is located before "avoir". In this case, the past participle agrees with the direct object. J'ai mangé une pomme // Je l'ai mangée La table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse // la table sur laquelle je l'ai mise Hier j'ai mangé une pomme // c'est la pomme que j'ai mangée hier Let's see if this rule holds the course of the centuries... Well actually, we already have the answer. Most of the time, the past participle agreement with the direct object drops, in non institutional language and writtings. Because this rule has never been natural or internalised by people, it is just an artificial rule that one has to learn by heart if they don't want to be punished/marginalised by the teacher. The only aim of this rule (grammatically useless) is to get good grades to pupils who can learn it and let the other ones apart (social shame). It's often funny when you hear people saying a sentence withou making the agreement, then process it mentally, realise their mistake and then suddenly you see the fear in their eyes XD just as if they remembered their childhood and the promise of a social disgrace of they didn't know the rule XD

[@johnvollertsen2871]

God bless you, sir.

[@chef13456]

this is super helpful my thought process when thinking in french is to find links with the english language. This really helped me sort things out!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Kindred spirits!

[@carolworthington3911]

Aha at last I understand the use of lequel - thank you

[@johannoliver9]

Thank you!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You're welcome!

[@fyodorkaramazov2136]

12:40 Past participle agreements (welcome to hell) "Je suis prise" if you're a woman "J'ai pris la tasse" neutral because the auxiliary is "avoir" "La tasse que j'ai prise" The agreement is with "la tasse" because it's placed before the verb Even us French are struggling with this, you can often hear native speakers saying things like "l'erreur que j'ai fait" instead of "l'erreur que j'ai faite"

[@NuitÉtoilée-0]

Et encore, il y a une subtilité pour le verbe faire 😆: la robe que tu t’es faite mais la robe que tu t’es fait coudre).🥴

[@Sliverth]

Thanks, another good one!

[@louisfrancisco2171]

Using "lequel" for people is normal in regular French. Using "qui" is preferred in what we call "langue soignée".

[@lp78400]

Exactement

[@michaelscottii6927]

Merci Alex....this explained a lot !

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

De rien Michael. Ça me fait plaisir !

[@teresita.lozada]

Excellent as always. Merci!!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Merci à toi :)

[@manonamanona9594]

Great video!

[@saidutube]

Super!

[@avac6332]

Super! C’est génial videos. J’aime votre chaîne. Merci 😊.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Merci beaucoup ! Votre chaîne*

[@avac6332]

@@FrenchinPlainSight Merci pour la correction🙏🏼😊.

[@jamdonut]

bonjour, merci de m'aider c'est tres bonne pour me apprends des nouvelles phrases en francais. Je suis de angleterre aussi. "sur lequel" c'est tres utile. - and sorry for how many mistakes i know i probably made! :)

[@gillianomotoso328]

3:02 - une question: pourquoi pas de subjonctif ici?

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Parce que "je pense que" n'introduit pas le subjonctif. "Je ne pense pas que" l'introduit mais pas tout le temps.

[@gillianomotoso328]

@@FrenchinPlainSight ah, d’accord. La phrase n’a pas de négatif pour coordonner une hypothèse, c’est une vérité supposée et pas de « si / alors ». Il faut que le mot « pense » ait me confondue. Merci 🙏🏽☺️

[@laynes1232]

Woo! Perfect timing. Just this weekend I had some conversation practice with another French learner, and we came across some confusion when I tried to say "You know that Netflix series I told you about." We both knew I was saying it wrong in French but didn't even know where to start trying to find a grammar lesson related to this. Thank you, Alex. I really like how you structure these language learning videos, breaking it down into 4 levels. Appreciate your time and teaching!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Is that the definition of serendipity? Yea. So many times I've got stuck halfway through!! Thanks for taking the time to write this comment Layne. Often I don't know what's appreciated and what people can take or leave, so all feedback is worth your time! Bon français !

[@laynes1232]

@@FrenchinPlainSight Definitely serendipity! I'll keep the feedback coming then!

[@markhathaway9456]

It occurred to me that when listening to "Je vous ai dit" it would almost sound like "Je vous aide". I'm learning to listen and it's difficult.

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

@@markhathaway9456 Hello Mark. Ah. On actual fact "aide" sounds more like "ed". Ai dit is more "ay dee". Hope you can start to hear the difference!

[@markhathaway9456]

@@FrenchinPlainSight Don'tcha just love the consistency of French? /s

[@Martel_Clips]

if you find yourself getting this sentences wrong because of the habit and realising it at the end, just clear your throat and start over. correcting yourself doesn't make you look dumb and it helps getting the right sentence as "muscle memory"

[@HeidiButkus]

I need more practice using “dont”! But I’m not sure how to get it!

[@Machobravo]

Excellent. You’re pretty damn smart!

[@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643]

La table sur LAQUELLE (table is feminine) j’ai posé la tasse.

[@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643]

La table sur LAQUELLE (table is feminine: LA table)

[@Naelhinn]

This comment is rather late but I just discovered your channel and didn't see any comment about "mis" or "mise" from your "la table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse" In this case you can't say "mise" because the auxialiary verb is avoir, and unless the object (in this case "la tasse") is BEFORE the verb, then it doesn't match the gender of the word. However, if you have already mentionned the mug in the context before, then you can replace "la tasse" with "la", thus putting the object before the verb. Thus changing "mis" to "mise" and the sentence to: "La table sur laquelle je l'ai mise"

[@MrVmalviya]

Thanks for the video🙏 Yes would love to have video on auquel, auxquelles etc. Also how do we translate this: Who was the person with/to whom you were talking to? My guess: C'est qui la personne à/avec qui tu parlais ? OR C'est que la personne à/avec qui tu parlais ?

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

C'est noté. Merci. "C'est qui la personne..." est correcte car la réponse est une personne.

[@davidchapman5297]

Your lessons are a huge help for English speakers learning French! Can't thank you enough!

[@IRACEMABABU]

At 12'49" it cannot be "mise", but "mis", because "la tasse" is AFTER the verb "AVOIR". It's an important rule. With the verb AVOIR the participe passé of the second verb is invariable if the complément d'objet direct (COD)is after the verb avoir. If before, this participe passé must be "accordé" (put in féminin if the COD if feminine). Said like that it's tricky, but look J'ai posé la tasse - La tasse que j'ai posée. La table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse - La tasse que j'ai mise sur la table. (mis, mise second verb au participe passé - ai verb avoir - la tasse COD). Many french make mistakes with that but it's ugly french - sounds weird.

[@segments2156]

For "the film i'm talking about", you could also say "le film à propos duquel je parle"... but if you have already mastered the "dont", then you'd better stay with it... even french people will rarely use such that structure...

[@s.maness-turner9565]

I recall learning English sentences should not end with a preposition either, though it is commonly accepted. ex. " 'The person with whom I spoke,' instead of, 'The person I spoke with.'

[@segments2156]

12:48 , no, it would not be "j'ai mise"... let me try to explain in english (but be assured that your french is much better than my english). In french, in the "passé composé", we have two "auxiliaire" verbs, être (be) and avoir (have) and a a verb which is in a form called "participe passé". When "être" is used, then we have to adapt the "participe passé" verb to the subject. If you are a man you will say "je suis tombé", and if you are a woman, you will say "je suis tombée"... With "avoir" we usually do not adapt the "participe passé", except in one case which may looks like your exemple, but it's not... The only case where we are supposed to adapt the "participe passé" (because ofter we don't do it at all) is when the C.O.D is before the verb... If you don't know what a C.O.D (complément d'objet direct) is, it's the object of the action... So, when you say "la table sur laquelle j'ai mis la tasse", the C.O.D of the verb "mettre" is not the table, it's the cup... and it's not positionned before the verb. However, if you were talking about "the cup that I put on the table", then you would have the C.O.D positionned before the verb, and you would have to say "la tasse que j'ai mise sur la table". Hope i was clear and that it will help you.

[@shauncummings2361]

Very good sir, but I’m not sure we can use the word « natives « anymore. Stp

[@RobertGerlich]

I'm confused. La table sur lequel j'ai mis la tasse is one of your examples, but since "table" is "la" (feminine), should it be La table sur laquel j'ai mis la tasse?

[@JohnKaman]

Of the obligation not to end a sentence with a preposition Winston Churchill said « that is a rule up with which I cannot put. »

[@kimerswell7643]

Merci!...I now know a preposition is a word I shouldn't end a setence with....

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

I just got the joke ;)

[@kimerswell7643]

@@FrenchinPlainSight The old ones are some of the best.

[@alasdairburton1814]

"A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with. - Winston S. Churchill"

[@ARather42]

Yesss! I get level 1 now! LOL and WHY don't books tell you to memorize the propositions with the verbs?? I stayed till the end!! Gotta memorize those prepositions!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

This makes my heart happy. I guess because you can have different forms without the prepositions depending on what follows. E.g. se souvenir que if following it by a subject. Je me souviens que tu travailles dans une école.

[@brunocardoso7132]

omg thank you so much for this, I am brazilian so whenever I tried to learn how to use DONT through portuguese I could never understand, but through english it was easier (did I make any mistake in this sentece?)

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

That's funny! At least one of your languages helped you. Great stuff.

[@louisfrancisco2171]

I noticed you didn't talk about combining "à" with "lesquels/lesquelles".

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

Too many things for.one video

[@louisfrancisco2171]

​@@FrenchinPlainSight Possible. Ça me semble assez trivial, mais il est probable que ce que moi j'estime simple ne le sera pas pour quelqu'un qui apprend le français.

[@Alternity666]

"La table que j'ai mis la tasse dessus" would work too, for me anyways as a French Canadian.

[@Mr.Edd3905]

You're not supposed to end English sentence with prepositions either. It's something I consciously try to do more often and it actually makes my English sound really good, albeit way too formal - haha.

[@Mr.Edd3905]

So, yeah - 'the table on which I put the mug' is better English. If I was writing an essay, this is how I would write it. So, really spoken French is just like reading out loud my thesis in English. Modern spoken English can be nice and simple sounding, but we elide so many syntactically necessary words (for maximal recipience) that it is not only (probably) hard to study from the outside looking in (on a 'deep syntactic level'), but also pretty vague and ambiguous, which is why French is the superior language in my opinion (at least for verbal communication).