No regrets
When I took the oral part of my French degree exam, they asked me the question: Est-ce que vous regretterez vos jours à l'université ? Immediately, I replied with an emphatic: Non. I was a little surprised to see the look on the examiner's face as she asked: Pourquoi ? Then it clicked - regretter in French doesn't always mean 'to regret' but can also mean 'to look back' which it does in this context. Fortunately I was able reply along the lines of 'one should never ever look back' which seemed to be acceptable. I passed the exam!
Sent by: Sarah
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The most difficult word for me to get my head round is "
The most difficult word for me to get my head round is "jamais" "never" or "ever" (rather contradictory!) I am correct in this, am I not?
When paired with the negation word "ne" it becomes "never". Remember that "ne" doesn't translate so well into English because a double negative in English becomes positive, not so in French where you can pair ne with things like nobody "Je n'ai vu personne" - lit. I negative saw nobody, I didn't see anyone. So with jamais "Je n'ai jamais fais qqch" - I negative ever have done it, i.e. I have never done it.
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