Sunday, March 8, 2020

French Exclamative Adverbs - Adverbes dexclamation

French Exclamative Adverbs - Adverbes dexclamation Exclamative adverbs are placed in front of clauses to indicate shock, disbelief, awe, or some other strong emotion felt by the speaker. There are five French exclamative adverbs: commequequest-ce quece quecombien Comme means how, though many English speakers are likely reword the sentence to use so instead:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Comme il fait beau  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How nice the weather is! The weather is so nice!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Comme cest difficile  !   Ã‚  Ã‚  How difficult it is! Its so difficult!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Comme tu es grand  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How tall you are! Youre so tall!Que is more or less interchangeable with comme:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quil fait beau  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How beautiful the weather is!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que cest difficile  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How difficult it is!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que tu es grand  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How tall you are!Que de is used in front of nouns to stress so much or so many of something:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que dargent  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  So much money!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que de monde  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  So many people!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Que de difficultà ©s  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  So many problems!Que followed by a subjunctive clause creates an indirect command.Informally, quest-ce que and ce que can replace comme and que:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ques t-ce quil fait beau  ! Ce quil fait beau  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  The weather is so beautiful!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quest-ce que cest difficile  ! Ce que cest difficile  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  Its so difficult!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quest-ce que tu es grand  ! Ce que tu es grand  !   Ã‚  Ã‚  Youre so tall!Combien means how much or how many and must be followed by an adverb or by de noun:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Combien plus dà ©nergie que jai  ! Combien plus dà ©nergie ai-je  !   Ã‚  Ã‚  How much more energy I have! (I have so much more energy)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Combien dargent que tu dà ©penses  ! Combien dargent dà ©penses-tu  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How much money youre spending! (Youre spending so much money!Note: The clause that follows the modified noun requires either inversion or que.Combien means how much/many or so much/many and may be followed by a clause, an adverb, or de noun:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Combien il a changà ©Ã‚  !   Ã‚  Ã‚  How he has changed! (Hes changed so much!)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Combien en a-t-on vus  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How many we saw! (We saw so many!)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Combien de fois ne lui a-t-on pas rà ©pà ©tà ©Ã‚  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  How many times have we told him!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mais combien plus noble si les hommes mouraient pour des idà ©es vraies  !  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  (Henri Louis Mencken, Extrait de Prà ©jugà ©s)  Ã‚  Ã‚  But how much more noble if men died for real ideas!

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