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Question:
As shown in the following two sentences, normally I don't start the sentence with "De"
Beaucoup d’employés sont en vacances pendant l'été, donc nous avons donc décidé de reporter la réunion.
Plusieurs employés sont en congé durant l'été, donc nous avons décidé de reporter la réunion.
Can we remove "De" from the following sentence, which I saw in my text book?
De nombreux
employés sont en congé durant l'été, donc nous avons décidé de reporter la réunion.
Thank you.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
That is a very good question,
and one that I had not thought about before! "Nombreux"
will always take "de" when it is followed by a noun. We cannot remove
the "de." "Plusieurs" and "certains" will not take "de." The reason, I
believe, is that these expressions of quantity denote an undetermined quantity.
We do not know how many "plusieurs" is
(several, but how many? A lot, few?). "Certains" is the same. E.g., "Certains livres sont bons." We do not know how many, which kind,
which language they are written in etc.
On the other hand,
"Beaucoup de," "peu de," "assez de" are expressions of
quantity that give us more information: a lot, a little, enough etc. "Nombreux" also is similar, meaning a lot, numerous.
Therefore, "nombreux" will always take
"de" before it, when followed by a noun.
Antipas
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Question:
I saw the following sentences in a text book:
Paul est quelqu'un d'intelligent.
Marie est quelqu'un d'intelligent.
- Ces pronoms sont invariables.
Does it mean that "quelqu'une" doesn't exist?
Can we say "Marie est quelqu'une d'intelligente?"
Thank you.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
Indeed, "quelqu'un" is invariable, regardless of the gender of
the person it is qualifying."Quelqu'une"
does not exist today as a pronoun in every day
language. Officially, it does, but it is a very literary form and is hardly
used today in modern language. You may come across that form in older pieces of
literature. You must say, "Marie est quelqu'un d'intelligent." In
this construction, the adjective is always in the masculine singular form,
regardless of the gender of the person.
Quelqu'un
can also be used as a subject. Example: Quelqu'un qui
vient chez moi n'aura pas faim (Someone who
comes to my place will not go hungry).
However, "quelques-uns" et "quelques-unes"
do exist, also as pronouns, but always in the plural form. For example, it can
be used by itself:
Tu
as acheté des oranges? Oui, quelques-unes.
Quelques-uns de nos camarades
de classe viennent chez
nous ce soir.
Antipas
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Question:
For the sentence "Le présent manuel
traite de divers moyens auxquels vous pouvez
avoir recours pour rendre votre bureau plus sain pour l'environnement.",
may I replace "auxquels" by "à
qui" or other pronom relatif?
So far I only learned pronoms relatifs: qui as sujet, que for COD, and dont for
COI, and I guess auxquels is also a pronom relatif.
Thank you.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
"Auxquels"
is indeed a pronom relatif,
a contraction of à and lesquels.
"à
qui" is used to replace a person or persons. For
example, C'est la personne
à qui je parle.
You could use "à quoi" to replace "auxquels" in your sentence, but it is more informal and used more in speaking. In a more formal or official context, "lequel" and its various forms would be better to use.
"Lequel" and its different forms (auquel, à laquelle, auxquels, auxquelles, duquel, de laquelle, desquels and desquelles) can be used to replace both persons and objects. For example, C'est la personne à laquelle je parle. Or, "c'est le livre auquel je fais allusion," or "c'est le livre duquel je parle" (it's the book that I am talking about"). You could also say: "C'est la personne à qui je parle," or "C'est le livre de quoi je parle."
By the way, "dont," which you referred to, is a pronom relatif, meaning "of which, of whom, whose," and can be used to replace both persons and objects. Thus, "dont" can generally be used interchangeably with "duquel" and its various forms. In fact, there are three different ways of saying "This is the book that I am talking about:
1. C'est le livre duquel je parle.
2. C'est le livre de quoi je parle.
3. C'est
le livre dont je parle.
Antipas
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Question:
Would you kindly confirm:
"prises" in "á des fins de prises de décisions" is a nom.
"prendre" in "avec le but de prendre des décisions" is a verbe.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
Indeed, "prises" is a
noun. "Prendre" is a verb.
Antipas
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Question:
I saw the phrase "á des
fins de prises de décisions" in some sentence.
It could be translated as "for decision-making purpose".
Does the singular form "á
de fin de prise de décision" exist? If it
exists, does it have the same meaning?
Thank you.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
"à
des fins de" is an expression that is always used in the plural form. In
English, we would translate this expression as "purposes," in your
phrase "decision-making purposes." In English also,
"purposes" is in the plural form.
If we wanted to use a word in
the singular form, we would have to change the word. We could use, for example,
"but" or "objectif." Thus, we
could say: "avec le but de prendre des décisions," or "avec l'objectif
de prendre des décisions."
This would translate into English as "with the purpose, or goal of
decision-making." "Purpose" in English here is also in the
singular form.
Antipas
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Question:
In the following sentence
Aider les organismes
gouvernementaux de réglementation
à tirer le maximum des nombreuses
normes et possibilités en matière d'évaluation de la conformité qui
leur
sont offertes est l'une des tâches
du Conseil canadien des normes.
For the verb "se offrir", I guess leur is "pronom possessif" of aux organismes, but may I know qui is "pronom"of which words?
How to write the main sentence
at present tempt and without qui and leur?
Thank you.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
Actually "leur" here is a pronom d'objet indirect (indirect object pronoun), meaning "to them," that is to " les organismes gouvernementaux de réglementation." It is not a pronom possessif in this context. In other contexts, it could be a pronom possessif. When it is a pronom d'objet indirect, it always
immediately
precedes the verb, as in this case. When it is a pronom
possessif, it always immediately precedes a noun. For example, "Tu vois
leurs
enfants? Ils
sont sympathiques!
"Qui" here is a pronom relatif (relative pronoun)
of the noun expression " des nombreuses normes et possibilités
en matière d'évaluation de la conformité."
A pronoun, by definition, always replaces a noun, and in this case, being a
relative pronoun, it functions as a subject. In other words, it is doing the
action of offering. "Qui," as a relative pronoun, always joins two
sentences or two clauses (each one having a verb) together, replacing the subject
of the second sentence. For example: "Le chien
traverse la rue. La rue est
large." To join these two sentences, we would use "qui" to
replace "La rue" of the second sentence. Thus, "Le chien traverse la rue qui est large."
By the way, in this sentence,
the verb is "offrir" and not "s'offrir" which is a verbe réfléchi (reflexive verb). Also, the sentence is already in
the present tense, even though the participe passé
(past participle) "offert" is used. The
hint is the verb "sont" which is the present
tense of "etre." So in English, it would
translate to "are being offered."
The main sentence, without
"qui" and "leur," would in effect
become two sentences. "Qui," as already pointed out, joins two
sentences together.
Therefore, the two sentences,
without "qui" and "leur" would
be:
1. Aider les organismes gouvernementaux de réglementation à tirer le maximum
des nombreuses normes et possibilités en matière d'évaluation
de la conformité est l'une des tâches du Conseil canadien des normes.
2. Des nombreuses normes et possibilités en matière d'évaluation de la conformité sont offertes aux organismes gouvernementaux de réglementation.
If you look at the two
sentences closely, you will notice that each sentence has a main verb that is
doing the action ("est") in the first one,
and "sont offertes"
in the second).
Antipas
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Question:
Would you mind to teach me why
"prière" is used in the following sentence?
Why they don't use "priez"?
Si cette
interruption a une incidence sur vos
opérations et ne peut avoir lieu à cette date, prière de nous
informer le plus tôt possible en
nous faisant parvenir un
courriel.
Answered by
brother Antipas Desai
The verb "prier" can
also be used. For example, in the sentence that you gave me, they could say:
"Nous vous prions de nous informer..." Both
forms are correct.
"Prière
de" can be considered more formal. In this construction, there is no verb
that is conjugated, as in the case of "nous vous
prions." Rather, the noun form of the verb "prier" is used,
which is " prière" which means literally
"prayer" in English, followed by the preposition "de,"
followed by the verb in the infinitive (in this case "informer"). It
is a more formal way of requesting someone to do or not do something, usually
in business settings.
Often,
in public places such as airports, train stations, metro stations etc., most of
the signs requesting the public to do or not do something use " prière de." For
example:
Prière de ne pas fumer.
Prière de jeter des déchets
dans la poubelle.
Prière de tirer la chasse d'eau (Please flush the toilet).
It is also a more concise way
of announcing something. Fewer words are used!
Antipas