Jump to content
Complete France Forum

Can someone please help me unpack the grammar?


mint

Recommended Posts

I read today that

La crainte d'une seconde vague épidémie est elle bel et bien justifiée?

Why bel when crainte, vague and épidémie are all feminine?

BTW, I take that phrase of bel et bien to be roughly equivalent to our well and good.

In a case of the masculine, could one say beau et bien?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"bel et bien" is a specific idiomatic phrase which translates as "really" so in the case quoted "is it really justified?".

Doesn't conform to any specific rules of agreement.  Like all languages, plenty of phrases that don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Norman and Weegie.  Really nice to have it explained. So, one more ready-go-expression and I am just waiting for the chance to use it the first time I can meet up with my friends[:D]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An apposite quote from somewhere else. "You simply can't be literal when examining an idiom. They tend to make

learning a new language difficult, but they're also used in languages

all across the globe"[:)]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I had always looked upon 'bel et bien' as just an expression, not that I usually try and go into it any deeper.

The odd times I have tried I end up not getting it, ie, in  a city we used to visit sometimes, there was a hotel, Hotel Le France.

I was told it was because Hotel was masculine, but it is always masculine so why isn't it Hotel du Ville, par example when it is always Hotel de Ville.

Please no one even try and explain, it is far toooooo complicated for my little brain![Www]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In some phrases the 'de' doesn't change..
For example 'pas de'
Pas de lait
Pas de pommmes
Pas de vin

pas de sous..

'besoin de' is another one

I suspect that 'hôtel de' may be a similar case for the Mairie

Anyway 'ville' is feminine so it can give "un hôtel de la ville" when you mean a hotel in town..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ofcourse Ville is feminine, posted late last night and cannot for the life of me remember which example I wanted to give now.[blink]

In your examples,  they were fond of using 'plus' instead of 'pas' a lot of the time. I found that very confusing when I was getting to grips with french as 'plus' inferred that I wanted more than I was asking for. And not that they hadn't got any left.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As you have said so many times on here, id, sometimes you just have to learn "on the hoof", make some mistakes and try to remember and not make the same ones again.

I agree with plus and plus de.  Sometimes, with plus and you do want more, you pronounce the "s".  But that does depend on whether sounding the "s" is appropriate.  Sometimes, sounding it is obligatoire, sometimes it's as you wish and sometimes it's never![:-))]

Un peu and peu de can also be tricky.  Un peu generally means a little and peu de means a few.  Vous parlez français?  Oui, un peu.  Mais, franchement, peu d'anglais parlent français.  Just an example, it is not a statement of fact so please don't go lining up to say how well you and all your friends can speak French![8-|]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...