According to the latest scale of the Voltaire Project, the French are struggling in spelling.
Only 45% of spelling rules are acquired.
Thus a badly conjugated verb, an uncertain plural, a word taken for another slip into our emails, SMS or even letters for the most purists among us.
While 86% of employers believe that mastering the French language is a priority skill, the level is down.
” READ ALSO – Do you know these naughty expressions of the French language?
How does a pronominal verb agree?
Do we rather
write “they were suspicious of her”
or
“they were suspicious of them”
?
According to the Dictionary of the French Academy, if the pronoun can be analyzed as COD,
“the agreement follows the rule that applies to participles used with the auxiliary avoir”
.
Like
“she asked herself the question”
, let us ask the question:
“she asked herself”
what?
Answer:
“the question”
.
The COD is therefore placed after the verb.
“Posé”
thus agrees in gender and number with the subject
“elle”
.
On the contrary, if the reflexive pronoun
"se"
cannot be analyzed as an object complement,
"the agreement of the participle is made in gender and number with the subject"
.
To your pencils and your spelling rules.
Will you be able to thwart these mistakes that are common to come across?
Take up the
Figaro
challenge !
