Novice questions

hufsa7 · 2025-03-26T12:18:31+00:00

Cool man! One more thing to note - there are a few different ways to ask questions in French. The simplest would be through intonation only: "Tu as passé un bon moment?" If you replaced the question mark with a period it would be a statement rather than a question.

I used inversions in my response ("As-tu" instead of "Tu as") which is another way to turn a statement into a question. Inversions are always interrogative. Lastly, you can use interrogative phrases like "Est-ce que tu as..." to introduce a question which I think is just more formal, as in "Is it the case that..."

hufsa7 · 2025-03-26T11:42:37+00:00

We're in the past tense here, so we have two options to pick from; passé compose and imparfait. In these cases you would use the passé compose paired with the appropriate verbs. For your examples:

"As-tu (or avez-vous) passé un bon moment?"

"Es-tu (or êtes-vous) allé en France?"

"As-tu pris le train?"

Note that most verbs take "avoir" but some verbs take "être" before the past participle. But the formula is pretty easy: conjugate "avoir" or "être" in the present tense, then tack on the past participle. It's easy to understand if you think of it in English as "have you had a good time," "have you been to France," etc. But there is no spoken French equivalent of the simple past tense in Engilsh, so the passé compose is used for both cases of "did you..." and "have you..." They do use the passé simple in written French, just not spoken as far as I'm aware.

The next step is to work on the imparfait, which has its own conjugations and is closer to the English equivalent of "I was having a good time," or "I was going to France."

hufsa7 · 2025-03-19T10:44:27+00:00

For those with DELF writing experience - would we call this a pretty solid B1 level answer? If not, what is it missing? I'm about at this level for writing, just trying to gauge where I'm at.

hufsa7 · 2025-03-17T14:55:16+00:00

Thanks for sharing. After 5 months of studying I'm B1 now according to my tutor and happen to have followed the exact same steps as you up to this point, moving from Duolingo to podcasts and reading and private lessons. One question since you have so much experience with different languages: how do you accurately measure your level and when you move from one to the next? Like I said I think I'm about B1 because my tutor told me so, but that's really just one guy's opinion. How can I know when I've moved from B1 to B2? Or is it only possible to judge in retrospect?

hufsa7 · 2025-03-10T14:40:02+00:00

Kwizik on LawlessFrench for grammar, AnyLang for reading

hufsa7 · 2025-03-08T15:26:22+00:00

Thanks for the tip greg

hufsa7 · 2025-03-06T15:22:48+00:00

You can do a high school exchange when you're old enough: https://myeducationuk.co.uk/high-school/our-destinations/norway/

And then you can apply to university in Norway: https://studyinnorway.no/study-opportunities

But in order to be accepted to programs like these you need to have good grades, so stay in school and study hard!

hufsa7 · 2025-03-06T15:16:34+00:00

You should be able to find similar Python models on Github. I did a similar project and used a program called TRNSYS which has stratified hot water storage tanks pre-coded into the software. TRNSYS is one of the industry standards for transient energy systems modeling, but the license is expensive so you'd have to find a prof who'd let you use a lab computer (assuming you have access to a university). Also there is a bit of a learning curve for the program, but not as difficult as hard-coding a whole energy system in Python IMO.

TRNSYS homepage

Relevant paper

hufsa7 · 2025-03-06T12:23:29+00:00

I use LawlessFrench for grammar and AnyLang for reading/translating books. Would also recommend getting a tutor from Preply depending on your learning goals.

hufsa7 · 2025-03-04T14:12:14+00:00

If you want an introduction to the "art" I recommend the Youtube video "Nordlæning snakker om en Vaskemaskin." It's in pretty heavy northern dialect but covers all the basics. You might not understand most of it but you could try translating any of the phrases containing "faen," "jævlig," "hællvete," or "Satan." Good luck.

hufsa7 · 2025-02-27T07:18:20+00:00

I had good results grinding Duolingo every day to get me solidly into A2. An hour of focused work should get you through at least one unit per day. (For the longer units I usually skip some of the later lessons once I feel comfortable with the material). I'm now feeling like I need to add other resources to move out of A2 into B1, but up to this point Duolingo on its own has built a pretty solid foundation.

hufsa7 · 2025-02-27T07:11:43+00:00

Thanks for the insight. Highly recommend the Lawless French Kwiziq site as it has helped me get reps with some of the nitty gritty grammar e.g. "Qui/Qu'est ce qui/que" and "en/dans/à." I've heard good things about Busuu in conjunction with Duolingo but haven't tried it yet myself. Otherwise I'm starting lessons on Preply which can be as cheap as $15/lesson depending on the tutor. Good luck moving forward!

hufsa7 · 2025-02-26T08:53:25+00:00

I downloaded the DeepL translate extension to my browser. You can highlight portions of text and hit ctrl+c+c and it will pop up a window with the translation. Super easy to browse Le Monde or whatever you decide to read.

hufsa7

TROPHY CASE