chove wrote:cjareck wrote:chove wrote:Anyone know of a good place to find out what the actual rules are?
What do you need rules for? In a real conversation, you will have no time to think about the rules. I would recommend looking at FSI and/or DLI course where they are surely drilled thoroughly so you will be able to produce the necessary word naturally.
I plan to avoid actual conversations wherever possible French is a language I'd like to be able to read and some writing would be nice as well. Also I just like knowing the rules for things like that. It's nerdy fun!
French is the right place to go if you want absolutely pointless grammar rules whose main purpose is to earn the user some nerd points . Compare "les 6 kilomètres que j'ai couru" (no agreement of the past participle) with "Les dangers que j'ai courus" (agreement of the past participle). The only difference is that in the first, you are speaking about an amount, and in the second, using a figurative meaning. The same happens with the verb coûter. I heard some radio programme where a French minister was going on about keeping standards high in French, and he then proceeded to demonstrate that he had not assimilated this rule, nor other similar ones. I was amused...
In any case, I'd agree to some extent with the above and not worrying too much - after all, what I've given you is in the most advanced grammar book, so it's clear that even by the time learners get there, educators are still having to try to get them to get it right!