Actually, as a french I learned a lot about english watching your videos. Tu ne réalises pas "à quel point" tes vidéos m'aident à progresser en anglais ! La plupart du temps, les astuces que tu donnes aux anglophones, marchent aussi dans le sens inverse.
Especially for English speakers, from whom any foreign language is unexpected. It's like the story about the singing dog. You don't expect to hear good music, you're just amazed he can sing at all. :) (English speaker, but happy to butcher other languages every chance I get)
If you are in France and try to speak french, it would be quite rude to be offended for some minor mistakes. That being said, Parisians have a reputation for being generally rude. Also we French love to correct each other's grammar so there is that.
Native french-speaker here. Great video! I have just one remark : As you said "combien" can be used instead of "à quel point". To take an example from the video one can say:"Je ne peux pas la laisser tomber maintenant. Je sais combien elle est triste" ( "I can't let her down now. I know how sad she is") and can also say "Je ne peux pas la laisser tomber maintenant. Sais-tu combien elle est triste? " ( "I can't let her down now. Do you know how sad she is?") ; BUT, ( and here is the subtility) one can't say "Combien est-elle triste?" ( "To "what extent" is she sad "). An other example "Me baigner? Tu es fou! Je sais combien l'eau est froide dans la région", ( "Bathing? You are crazy! I know how cold the water is in this area ") and "Me baigner? Tu es fou! Sais-tu combien l'eau est froide dans la région?" ( " Bathing? You are crazy! Do you know how cold the water is in this area?") works but "Combien l'eau est-elle froide dans la région" ( ""How cold is the water in the area?") ? doesn't. My point is that we can extract some logic to understand why sometimes "combien" and "à quel point" are synonyms and why the are not in certain cases. A rule of thumb could be to avoid : "combien" in a interrogative tense. But as you can see, some interrogative phrases works. This is because the interrogative sentence in which "combien" works is "rhetorical". You don't really ask " how much" the person is sad, you want someone to realize "how much" a person is sad. It's more an emphasis than a question. But, such a use ( "combien" instead of "à quel point" ) is a bit more classic ( uniquely in the declarative way). it can be used to add a "fancy" touch. I apologize for the mistakes, and for the long comment. Hope this is useful and not more confusing! :p
Thanks for additions, Mpenzi. Kind and constructive feedback. It furthers the conversation and will help my viewers. My channel's aim is not to say "say X like this and only like this. Never like this." So there will always be ways I can improve. I just aim to generalise and simplify complex parts of the language for English speakers so they can move forward with confidence.
@@FrenchinPlainSight You're welcome! Yes, I get that. I didn't mean that there is only one way to say it. I thought it was funny that you pointed out that the two words were synonyms but not really. My goal was to give a simple rule to understand this difference. I'm sorry if my comment sounded aggressive or lecturing. I think it's because of my poor English. Keep it up, your channel is great.
@@mpenziwamungu731 No your comment came across as friendly, complimentary, and constructive. You should see some other comments in here that make no attempt to do that. Your English is far from poor! It's a big challenge to go into detail on ALL subtleties in a short RUclips video. It's not the right platform. One thing I've had to learn is to filter out what learners don't need. That does mean that native speakers will find gaps in what I say. I'm forever learning and improving. But, the video is only one component. The discussion that it creates can help people so much! So, come back any time. D'ailleur, tu viens d'où ?
@@FrenchinPlainSight Thank you! Practicing my English was one of the reasons I commented. I try to use english on many contexts. Your video has been recommanded by the youtube algorithm. I like to watch foreign french teachers ( especially those who are native speakers of a language I want to learn myself) because I think they point some difficulties and misunderstandings I have myself, as a language learner. For example, your video on the prepositions pointed out why I'm always embarrassed when I have to decide wether or not I should use "that" when I speak english :p. To answer your question, I'm French and Comorian ( born and raised) , and French and Comorian are my native languages. However, I have lived in France for seven years now, and mostly in the south, at Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and Vitrolles( I recognized the occitan flag :p). I wish you all the best for your channel!
@@mpenziwamungu731 Not aggressive or lecturing at all, but much appreciated instead. Now, si je parlais le Français comme tu (permet-moi) écris l'Anglais... j'en serais bien hereux. Bonne soirée, et merci.
Grammar books just don't get the how construction problem across as clearly as this. Great job. Guess it goes back to listening and speaking as often as you can, in order to improve your french.
1:30 When talking about a recipe, we'll more often say "On a besoin de quelle quantité de farine pour faire ce gâteau ?" rather than using "combien". Using "combien" here still is 100% correct french.
I love the subtleties :D. But it's true that we shouldn't get carried away with them to the point that they stop us speaking. But if that's not the case, we can have fun being geeks.
Wow. This video is exploding on RUclips. Thanks so much guys! Thanks to feedback in the comments, I'd like to acknowledge that in my example sentence "On a besoin de combien de farine ?" it should be something like "On a besoin de combien de grammes de farine ?". A small mistake that doesn't change what I'm teaching. You still wouldn't use "à quel point" there. I'd like to ask any native speakers who read this after watching the video to please give *kind, constructive* feedback. Remember, tone of voice is so hard to achieve online via written message. On my channel, I am doing my best generalise and simplify complex concepts for English speakers so they can differentiate between 2 things and use French with more confidence. The goal for my students is never to tell them to aim for perfection, just to clear the path for them to move forward. I will continue to do my best to put out the most accurate information in my videos, because I never want to intentionally mislead people. I will make French mistakes and I will always be open to corrections in order to improve, like any human being should. But please remember there is a human being on the other end :) Bonne journée !
5:34 In casual conversation talking about sports you'd more often hear : "Tu fais du sport tous les combien ?" or "Tu fais du sport combien de fois par semaine ?" Or if a sentence before already gave you context that you're talking about sport : "T'en fais tous les combien ?" or "T'en fais combien de fois par semaine ?"
As a general rule, we use « combien » for things that you can put a mathematical number on. It applies to all material objects. « How many » always translates to combien. « How much » is not as straightforward to translate. « À quel (point) » is used for more immaterial concepts of quantities (like feelings). With things like time, speed or frequency, it’s a little bit tricky, because those are immaterial things that can be expressed by factual numbers (hours, kilometers per hour or hertz). But in French, unless you specifically ask for a finite number of those values (in which case, the English equivalent question would turn out quite different), you have to use the « à quel.le … » form. Like all rules, there are exceptions and you will have to experiment them to learn them. As a matter of simply being understood, « combien » is fine even if inaccurate. French people will still understand what you’re trying to ask, that may not be the case if you try to use « à quel point » in the wrong context. Learning a language is not as easy as just translating the words from a sentence in your native language (it sometimes just does the trick, fortunately). In many cases, you have to first try to shape the sentence in a way that makes sense in the targeted language, then translate the words. Don’t try to learn by heart foreign expressions, try to understand the foreign logic behind these expressions.
Merci Alex, j'apprend le francais avec Lingoda depuis Septembre mais je besoin de pratique parler le francais! As you can see... so spoken and conversational French is so helpful. I've never heard 'a quel point' before so I will remember this, wonderfully explained by Mpenzi too!
Hello, just discovered your channel and I'm finding it so useful - thank you. I live in France. Having reached a certain level with the language, I'm struggling to achieve that next level, a real conversational fluency. Your reference to fillers, ways to start sentences and join phrases is really helpful. You have a nice teaching style.
For the exercice example where you are right that "A quel point" won't work and the "A quelle frequence" is working great and will be heard, it feels a bit elaborate to use this. You mention we'd go 'other ways' about it, and one you can use, which could be seen kind of related would be: "tous les combien": "tu fais du sport tous les combien?". I think this is a fairly common use to cover this kind of case.
Thanks so much, Stefane! I assume that is based on the structure.. "Je fais du sport tous les jours. Tu fais du sport tous les combien?" Thanks for your helpful addition.
And here is an awfully incorrect expression, although often used : 'c'est le combientième ?' (for ex in a race : il est arrivé le combientième ? meaning 'What rank did it reach?') For the date in the month, we usually say 'on est le combien aujourd'hui ?', althought this is also incorrect, we should say 'le quantième du mois sommes-nous ?' (which would make everybody burst out laughing, except in some well-educated circles ).
Je suis français, je ne vais donc pas te dire combien j'apprécie tes vidéos, ni à quel point elles me sont utiles, mais elles mm'en apprennent beaucoup sur la langue anglaise, et je passe un bon moment à chaque fois.
Presentation is everything. this was so non threatening, put me at ease and consequently, I retained the information. I am a very non French New Yorker. Thanks for this video is terrific.
If you want to know how cold it is (i.e. temperature), you can say "Il fait combien ici/la-dedans, etc"? with (de degres understood). You can also say things like "il fait tres froid la-bas?" or simply "quelle est la temperature?"
Wooow so interesting! As a Canadian French I never realized how intranslatable this was. I'd like to point out out that (at least in Canada) "à quel point" is awkward in most situations. You can say it, sure, but like you said, often the best is to reformulate; for example: "How cold is it?" (Canadian) "C'est-tu si froid [que ça]?" (Metropolitan) "Est-ce [que c'est] si froid [que ça]?" "si...que" and "tant...que" are much more natural for measurables. It's definetly linguistically distinct, but it will yield exactly the same information. And it explains why often when anglophones ask measurable questions francophones will reply negatively (e.g.: "it's not that cold" -> "c'est pas si froid [que ça]" which actually means "it's warm"). I would only use "à quel point" when the emphasis is on the scale, e.g.: "Do you know *how much* trouble you've been?" "Sais-tu *à quel point* tu fais chier?"
Montrealer here -- Charles is correct - 'à quel point' sounds really unnatural in these sentences. Those Parisiens really need to learn how to speak French properly. And seriously laughing at "Sais-tu à quel point tu fais chier?" [although I would definitely say: "Tu sais-tu à quel point tu fais chier?"]
I think I have never had the need to used it cause when in doubt, I ususally find a different way of saying it, although, as a native spanish speaker, I ususally struggle less with grammar than english speaker, as our grammar is much more similar, but it was nice to expand my french a bit more, je savais pas just à quel point j’avais besoin d’apprendre ça
Merci pour la vidéo! I have been learning French at my own pace for quite a while now. Je le comprend mais je n'ai pas persones pour le parle. En fait, c'est mom première fois que je vois "à quel point". C'est une très intéressant et informative vidéo!! Merci😊
De rien ! Et bien joué d'avoir persévéré jusqu'ici. Oui c'est difficile de pratiquer quand on est seul, mais avec Internet il y a plein de sites où tu peux trouver des gens avec qui pratiquer. Il faut juste être ouvert à essayer quelque chose de nouveau, ce qui ne sera pas difficile pour toi vu que tu apprends par toi-même. Tu es déjà fort :). J'ai fait une vidéo sur les outils Internet pour s'améliorer en français oral. Bon courage ! ruclips.net/video/rs1H0qdS6gY/видео.html
@@FrenchinPlainSight Je connais plusieurs francophones expatriés qui pratiquent le français essentiellement au téléphone avec leur famille (bien-sûr) et en ligne à travers des jeux où ils rejoignent un groupe (guilde/association/...) francophone. Y a pas des tonnes de jeux en ligne où les gens causent beaucoup par contre et le français y est parfois massacré...
Good point about how things sound to the native ear. People are just used to standard usages, since everyday language is a social property. Combien can never really work in the simple reformulation, because the question: 'how important is this?' isn't really asking "how much/many", but 'in what way/how far?'
Super helpful videos - thank you! First, you have excellent taste in choosing exactly the gaps that even people like me who have studied French for a long time can still find confusing or hard to remember. Second, I like how you cover a cluster of related expressions or words and explain the similarities and differences. That makes it much easier for my brain to retain these later when I'm speaking.
It's beside the point but «À quel point est-ce important» also works (it's slightly more formal if anything) and its grammar is less intimidating than "est-ce que c'est".
Interesting. I studied French to A level (albeit quite a few years ago now!), and still remember quite a lot of what I learned. But I don't ever recall learning about "à quel point". Thanks!
I only learned about it, as is the case so often, by realising I needed it. I was writing a survey intended French speakers and I wanted to ask the question "how important is it that...". My flatmate at the time told me about "à quel point" and I've never forgotten it. Wow, that was 6 years ago!
@@FrenchinPlainSight I came across this video on my youtube recommended, and French is part of my degree now so this is really helpful! Goodness knows when, if ever, I would have learnt it otherwise, thanks!!
Salut Alex, avant toute chose, félicitations pour tes vidéos, tes analyses de la langue française, de ses subtilités et de son utilisation sont remarquables et tes propos clairs et précis ! Si tu ne l'as pas déjà fait (désolé, je n'ai pas encore eu le temps de regarder toutes tes vidéos), j'aimerais beaucoup que tu analyses le français de Timothée Chalamet, il a un excellent niveau, son père étant français. Merci pour ton talent, ta bienveillance et tes sourires 🙂
The thing about teaching in English is that there are other channels that teach in French. The way you approach it is a good preparation for the all-in-French channels. You're helping me to ease my way back into a language I kind of fell out of love with
Thanks a lot! I see my English content as also an alternative. A learner is not necessarily better because they can watch all in French. Some points are so specific that even with a high level are better learned in English. I've been happy to see there are other people in the world that think the same :D.
"A quel point" is used very often in France, and I personnaly use it almost everyday. / Dans le langage de tous les jours, on pourrait très bien dire aussi à un ami :"t'étais à combien?" pour lui demander à quelle vitesse il conduisait, il comprendra très bien, mais c'est du langage entre potes...a phrase que tu as donnée en exemple: "A quelle vitesse tu conduisais?" est bien meilleure d'un point de vue grammatical, et c'est du très bon français. / As a frenchman, I'm so fed up with the following big mistake from my compatriots: "j'ai été au cinéma" which is verry incorrect french (yet, 7 out of 10 french people say that), it should/must be : "je suis allé(e) au cinéma", even some journalists make this mistake.../ Well done Alex, you're excellent at teaching french, you speak very well our language. ;) The "Education nationale" would need someone like you to help french pupils improve their english!
I remember travelling to Paris specifically a town outside Paris and realising that my schoolboy French made me sound like Charles de Gaulle giving a speech and the locals spoke unlike the textbooks It was an eyeopener.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Well it was my first revelation that the point of language learning is to communicate not to be grammatically perfect and listening to native speakers doing everyday transactions was key to communicating.
@@johncrwarner I wouldn't say the right way of speaking a foreign language is to aim for the native way. The French prefers you being grammaticaly correct than sounding native. Which the latter, in my opinion, is almost impossible. Also, pardon me for all the mispellings and errors, English is not my mother tongue.
Thanks for this bit: somehow this was completely missed when I had French in school (ages ago ;-) ). Even back then, it was painfully obvious we weren't being taught the language ordinary people were speaking in France. I'll subscribe and see what can be salvaged ;-)
Hello, excellent video ! I think the it does a great job at explaining the subtleties ! As you explain it, a simple translation word for word is sadly rarely the best option and sometimes even really weird ! It might be a personal/regional (belgium) particularity, but to me "combien" is really connected to numbers and countable things. The sentences with "combien je t'aime" and even "combien de farine" sound really weird to me (I'd even say old-fashioned for "combien je t'aime"), because those are uncountable things. If anything, "combien de farine" means how many flour bags. I don't think I would ever use it, I'd say "quelle quantité de farine" instead, although I might say this when thinking about it and use it anyway when I'm not paying attention, that can happen too when analyzing language ! Finally, if you really want to use combien when discussing driving speed, you can, since it's a number : you can simply ask "tu roulais à combien ?".
Merci alors "bis repetita placent" pour moi XD je viens de dire la même chose :p je ne suis pas belge (ni du nord de la France) mais je ressens la même chose. Et je me dis aussi qu'en parlant vite sans réfléchir je pourrais peut-être dire "combien de farine" vite fait au lieu de "quelle quantité de farine" peut-être à la place de "combien de grammes de farine".
It's so useful to learn the idioms which are different from English. So many language courses focus on the easy bits that are more like English or easily translatable. I have never had any confidence in spoken French because all those lessons at school gave me no idea how to properly construct an idiomatic statement. Thank you so much!
I can't even remember which idiom(s) I put in this video! I usually don't encourage learning them until comfortable with the language because they aren't the best use of one's time who is looking for speaking confidence.
@@FrenchinPlainSight sure, I'm at the stage where I can hold a simple conversation and understand basic phrases without subtitles / lookups and what has held me back for years is not knowing properly idiomatic French. I think French is stricter than English in this regard. I note that English borrowed the term via Middle French (and Greek in origin).
Spot on video Alex. Maybe your best yet ! Also I'm very impressed with the new website and all the merche. I was going to write a couple of phrases but they were pretty much what everyone else has said , along the lines of « Bravo Alex ! Je ne peux pas te dire à quel point tes vidéos m’inspirent. Combien de fois je me suis demandé ce genre de truc » Oh well, there you go, I've written them anyway. :)
Ne sous-estime jamais le pouvoir de tes paroles Heather, même si elles ont déjà été évoquées par des autres. Merci infiniment ! Not really anything in the way of merch right now. I'd love to get something going at some point :D Thank you for the kind words regarding the website 😍
En réponse à ta question sur [Je n’ai jamais pensé à quel point ça faisait mal]* / [Je n’ai jamais pensé combien ça faisait mal]* : Le problème ici est celui du régime du verbe penser. Chaque verbe, dans quelque langue que ce soit, a un ou plusieurs régimes possibles, qui peuvent éventuellement correspondre à des sens différents. Par exemple « Se demander » a entre autres les régimes suivants : 1) Transitif direct - je me le demande (cela ne fonctionne qu’avec le pronom « le », qui résume ici une proposition interrogative indirecte 2) Suivi d’une proposition interrogative directe - Je me demande « où va-t-on ? » 3) Suivi d’une proposition interrogative indirecte je me demande si/comment/pourquoi elle est partie « Penser » a entre autres les régimes suivants : 1) Intransitif - Je pense donc je suis (exercer la faculté de penser) 2) Transitif direct (avec deux sens différents, l’opinion et la réflexion philosophique sur un objet) - Je pense la même chose que toi. Le philosophe pense la liberté. 3) Suivi d’un infinitif (sens : envisager de) - Je pense partir bientôt. 4) Proposition subordonnée avec « que » (sens : opinion, évaluation… ) - Je pense que c’est bon. 5) Proposition affirmative ou interrogative directe (action de se parler à soi-même) : j’ai pensé « les choses vont mal », j’ai pensé « Comment est-elle partie ? » 6) Penser à : Je pense à toi, je pense à mon enfance, j’y ai bien sûr pensé (sens : « songer, rêvasser » ou « se souvenir de » ou « avoir une pensée pour » ou « tenir compte de ») En revanche "penser" n’a PAS le régime de la proposition interrogative indirecte. On ne peut pas dire [Je pense si elle est partie]* ni [Je pense comment elle est partie]* [Je pense pourquoi elle est partie]* On ne peut donc pas davantage dire [Je pense combien cela fait mal]* ni [J’ai pensé combien cela faisait mal]* ni [Je n’ai jamais pensé combien cela faisait mal]* (« combien » ou « à quel point », cela ne change rien à l’affaire). Les quelques phrases qui précèdent contiennent donc le même barbarisme : à savoir un verbe à « régime foireux ». Elles me gênent à l’oreille, et gênent certainement la plupart des francophones, même si cette gêne peut leur sembler difficile à justifier. Pour exprimer la même idée, le francophone se tournera spontanément vers un verbe permettant cette construction, c'est à dire possédant le régime convenable : « se demander », par exemple. « Je ne me suis jamais demandé combien/à quel point cela faisait mal ». Cette phrase-là est parfaitement française et naturelle. Cela dit, le linguiste pourra également réfléchir aux causes de cette faute. Elles tiennent sans doute à un calque malheureux de l'anglais (car "think" n'a pas les mêmes régimes que "penser") mais également au télescopage entre le régime "penser à" et le premier mot de la locution "à quel point".
Veeery interesting. As a french, when my english friends asked me that question, I used to answer: use "combien" when you could count it( 1, 2, 150, 27, etc...) or answer with a number ( il fait 25°, il en faut 600gr., elle arrive dans 20 mn...) and another word when you could not count it or answer with a number. But listening to you, and reading some interesting comments, I' m a little puzzled. 🤣🤣🤣
Merci pour cette vidéo. A l'école on va passer un examen afin de nous préparer pour nos "A levels" et je vais essayer d'utiliser ce que j'ai appris dans cette vidéo
True, 'à quel point' is right, but only used by educated people. If we want to say 'how cold is the water?', for ex, we vould probably say 'est-ce que l'eau est vraiment froide ?' (is the water really cold?) : 'à quel point l'eau est-elle froide?' would sound a little '19th century style' or pedantic, although understandable. In other situations, it would perhaps sound more natural.
Comme le singulier et le pluriel se prononcent de la même façon, des fois il peut y avoir des ambiguïtés. "Tu as utilisé combien de farineS pour faire ce pain? Deux, de la farine de blé et de la farine de seigle." vs "tu as utilisé combien de farine pour faire ce pain? 300g pour cette boule." Personnellement je ne suis pas très fan de la deuxième formulation avec "combien" pour des objets non dénombrables même si c'est correct évidemment dans ce cas (surtout si on considère qu'on demande "combien de grammes de farine?" . En fait dans les deux cas pour retirer toute ambiguïté on peut dire "tu as utilisé combien de farines différentes?" et "tu as utilisé quelle quantité de farine (ou combien de grammes de farine)?". Et comme vu dans un autre commentaire, "combien" pour dire "à quel point" résonne un peu "fancy" aux oreilles même si ce n'est pas du tout choquant.
Bravo pour cette vidéo très fouillée et très travaillée ! Juste un mot (je suis Français de langue maternelle française) : La question ouverte (ouverte signifie réponse différente de oui/non) "à quelle vitesse est-ce que tu conduisais ?" est correcte. Mais aujourd'hui (21ème siècle) vous ne l'entendrez (presque) pas. C'est beaucoup trop long. Vous entendrez plutôt la question fermée (réponse oui/non) "Tu conduisais vite ?" / "Vous conduisiez vite ?" C'est bien plus bref, donc bien plus efficace. Bien qu'il y ait une différence de sens, on reste dans le même contexte : la personne interrogée dira finalement à quelle vitesse elle conduisait et ne se contentera pas de répondre par oui ou par non.
Combien tu fais de sport (par semaine ?) works pretty fine but À quel point would mean "to which extent do you work out" and would implies "how hard do you exercise" not how much
I would like to give my point of view, for some example sound a bit odd to me. For instance: "Il a senti à quel point j'étais triste" doesn't sound really natural to me. It's seems that we would rather say "Il a senti que j'étais triste" or if you want to emphase "Il a senti que j'étais très triste" . Moreover is that case: "il a senti combien j'étais triste" is actually ok (and I personally would more likely say combien than "à quel point" in this instance"), but is perhaps a bit old fashioned, yet completely natural. I feel that the same goes for "important" and "cold", thus saying "J'ignore combien l'eau est froide" is correct, yet again, perhaps a bit old fashioned... (and it's not the translation of "I wonder how cold the water is"), same goes with "Tu sais combien ton amitié est importante" (You know how important is your is friendship) is fine. But you're totally right to say that it depends of whom you're talking ("j'ignore combien cette phrase est incorrect", or "je ne sais pas à quel point cette phrase est incorrect"). Because I guess you can generally find a way to say both in French, although "combien" seems to me to be a bit more "literary"/formal/old fashioned (posh/snob even at times) and "à quel point" (but it's very personal) seems very technical/straightforward. Anyway it's very advanced to think of such nuances... But I find video like yours very interesting because they make me ponder about my native-tongue and question it. Moreover it gives clues to understand the way French conceptualises things compare to other languages.
"il a senti à quel point j'étais triste" "il a senti que j'étais triste" et "il a senti que j'étais très triste" sont trois phrases aux sens différents je pense. "A quel point j'étais triste" indique un niveau de tristesse atteint qui n'est pas précisé. Ça peut se référer à un état sous-entendu, partagé avec l'interlocuteur ou dissimulé par pudeur par exemple. "très triste" serait un cas spécifique de cet état de tristesse. Il y a quand même des nuances de sens entre ces trois phrases qui ne sont pas parfaitement interchangeables.
@@chemfloflo6374 Je suis d'accord; ce que j'ai voulu signifier ici c'est que, même si j'admet la subjectivité de cette remarque, c'est que à quel point j'étais triste me semble assez peu naturel en Français, et je me suis risqué à chercher des alternatives. Mais la vérité c'est qu'ici, pour exprimer la nuances dont vous parlez je dirai bien plus volontiers " Il y a senti combien j'étais triste" ou dans un l'élan de lyrisme "Il a senti l'étendu de ma tristesse" ... le truc marrant, c'est dans une conversation ça ne me dérangerait pas " à quel point j'étais triste" ... Mais si on réfléchi à la manière la plus naturelle de le dire, je trouve qu'il y a dans "à quel point" une idée un peu mathématique, une idée de quasi-précision qui se marie mal avec l'idée des émotions, de la tristesse. (mais c'est très subjectif/personnel) L'autre idée c'est que en général l'étendu de la tristesse n'est pas si importante (mais c'est très discutable et de toute façon c'est hors sujet). Mais vous avez raison.
the issue here is polarisation, i.e. idioms that work differently in the affirmative as opposed to negation. "à quel point" works better when there is an implied sense of negation: he never knew, he never realised, if only he could have understood, only at this very late stage has it become apparent...
In your example of the nuance where you could use "combien", i feel like i would have rather used "comment". But maybe it's a regional thing. I'm often corrected on my grammar since i left Saint Etienne.
Super interesting. "On a besoin de combien de farine" isn't how a French speaker would say, however. "On a besoin de quelle quantité de farine", or "On a besoin de combien de grammes de farine", is how it would be said.
Hi, 1:25 you used the example "On a besoin de combien de farine pour faire ce gâteau ?" However, even though it works, it's still a little bit.. kinda weird to hear. Combien is literally "How many", it is indeed often used as "How much" but in some cases, it's better to use something different like "De quelle quantité de farine a t-on besoin pour faire ce gâteau ?" I can't really think of a general rule so here are some examples where "combien" sounds weird "Combien d'eau tu veux dans ton verre ?" "Combien d'air as-tu inspiré ?" "Combien de sang un humain a-t-il dans son corps" "Combien de riz veux-tu dans ton assiette ?" So it's mainly about, can you count that quantity or not, for instance, you can't use "combien" with liquids. However, if you add a unit, then it perfectly makes sense. Let me correct the previous examples : "Je remplis ton verre jusqu'à où ?" "Quelle quantité d'air as-tu inspiré ?" "Combien de litres de sang un humain a-t-il dans son corps" "Combien de cuillères riz veux-tu que je mette dans ton assiette ?"
Hey. Thanks. After receiving the same feedback (regarding the farine) several times I updated the pinned comment to reflect it. My friend told me today though "Ah, in everyday French it's something that's very possible to hear."
Thank you! I'm curious, if you watched the last 2 videos before this one (toujours and encore), what makes the "format" of this one stand out? Thanks :)
Hmm it’s hard to explain and it’s such a slight difference. First I like the intro vibe better, how you phrased the question and why I should know the difference.
You do it in other videos but this one just immediately engaged me because I would have just said combien. Also I like the thumbnail and this was just the right amount of discussion and education
The problem with learning a new language... in our native tongue (I speak American-lish) we know by instinct what doesn't sound right... like if I say "He are a good boy," we would know that just isn't correct, and trying to gain that instinct is very difficult in a new language... When I lived in a French speaking country (Belgium), I always messed up the gender, saying nouveau instead of nouvelle. So it will always be a process of always getting things wrong, sad to say.
A little mistake, une petite erreur: Best way to say "how much flour.....?" is not " combien de farine" but "quelle quantité de farine" (literally "which amount of flour) or "combien de gramme/ de kilogramme de farine..." (literally " how many gram/kilogram of flour..."). "combien de farine.." sounds like "how MANY flour"
Don't want to add another layer here, but in French canadien we rarely use à quel point, we replace it with comment, most of the time. À quel point would sound very formal here, but obviously, not wrong.
Thank you for this! Perhaps another way to think of this phrase is "how very" as in "Do you know how very tired I am?" Savez-vous a quel point je suis fatigue? You are not asking for a specific quantity. Is this correct?
Yes I suppose that would work, but then I'm not sure how to differentiate between "how tired" and "how very tired". Perhaps tone of voice would communicate the difference. What do you think Susan?
@@FrenchinPlainSight Maybe that would be the real difference between "combien" and "à quel point". Just like the english "to what extent", with "à quel point" I feel something like it's a step on a path with a direction (to, à), a step point, a kind of limit reached while "combien" is just the fact of being at a point. For example, "à quel point est-il énervé ?" might imply that he's already rather angry at least. While a sentence with "combien" would just ask for the state of his anger. Well that's how I feel the thing but not sure how to write it down with words ^^ however I think that now, both expressions can mean the same.
Question for you: What about the word "si?" I lived in Brussels for a short time, and I seem to remember hearing "si" used as a translation for "how + adjective." For example, "Je ne savais pas si mal ç'était," "I didn't know how bad it was." Thoughts? Merci!
My thoughts are that that looks wrong and I haven't heard it. But those are just my thoughts. A native would be better placed for this one. Grammatically, it looks wrong to me.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Well, I could be remembering it wrong, 20 years on! Maybe my brain mixed it up with something like "pas si mal que ça." I'll be interested to "si" ;-) what a native speaker has to say. Thanks!
Cette vidéo est également très utile pour moi qui tente de conserver mon anglais. Je réalise combien il est important de travailler la langue régulièrement 😛. Thanks a lot.
Haha. D'une pierre deux coups : j'aide les anglophones à mieux comprendre le français par rapport à leur langue et les francophones à travailler leur anglais. Gagnant gagnant ?
Did I say it was to one person? Sorry if so! The stock video I put on screen showed it, true, but when I wrote it I think I was just going for a) a phrase with vous, just to mix it up and b) I imagined speaking to 2 people such as children.
Also in French which everybody uses in every call centre you can ever imagine in the UK is bear with me apparently as I was told by French very very large which I won't mention electricity supplier they basically said it means getting to know somebody in special way and you end up getting pregnant which is not thing to say to somebody that you never going to me over the so everytime somebody says bear with me what are actually saying is do you want children with which is why the company doesn't say it and everybody else so I couldn't agree more
Salut Alex. I’m French and personnellement, j’utilise très rarement l’expression à quel point ! Je m’exprime d’une autre façon. Une petite remarque : Il est plus correct, même à l’oral et de façon informelle de dire ne pas que simplement pas. Oublier le ne me fait mal aux oreilles 😃
Bravo pour les vidéos très utiles pour ceux qui comme moi souhaitent progresser en anglais. NB: ô combien, la forme exaltée en fonction des circonstances.
Comment se fait-il que je ne connais pas "a quel point?". Combien pour le chapeau rouge? Je n'avais pas devine a quel point elle etait heureuse avec ce gars.
can you do a video on how to formulate sentences with the word “to”? like for example how would i say this question: what does that mean to you? en francais?
Actually, as a french I learned a lot about english watching your videos. Tu ne réalises pas "à quel point" tes vidéos m'aident à progresser en anglais ! La plupart du temps, les astuces que tu donnes aux anglophones, marchent aussi dans le sens inverse.
In my travels, I have found that most native peoples are over the moon if you just try their language, no matter how you butcher it. Merci, monsieur
Especially for English speakers, from whom any foreign language is unexpected. It's like the story about the singing dog. You don't expect to hear good music, you're just amazed he can sing at all. :)
(English speaker, but happy to butcher other languages every chance I get)
Yes so true on the whole! So many people get put off by Parisians' reputation for being more snooty. But that's such a minority.
As my wife and daughter discovered a few years ago. They both found Parisians to be very kind and helpful. Vive la France 🇫🇷 ♥️
If you are in France and try to speak french, it would be quite rude to be offended for some minor mistakes. That being said, Parisians have a reputation for being generally rude. Also we French love to correct each other's grammar so there is that.
@@glaframb Not necessarily true. As with people from everywhere, there are rude ones too but they are not the majority.
Native french-speaker here. Great video! I have just one remark : As you said "combien" can be used instead of "à quel point".
To take an example from the video one can say:"Je ne peux pas la laisser tomber maintenant. Je sais combien elle est triste" ( "I can't let her down now. I know how sad she is") and can also say "Je ne peux pas la laisser tomber maintenant. Sais-tu combien elle est triste? " ( "I can't let her down now. Do you know how sad she is?") ; BUT, ( and here is the subtility) one can't say "Combien est-elle triste?" ( "To "what extent" is she sad ").
An other example "Me baigner? Tu es fou! Je sais combien l'eau est froide dans la région", ( "Bathing? You are crazy! I know how cold the water is in this area ") and "Me baigner? Tu es fou! Sais-tu combien l'eau est froide dans la région?" ( " Bathing? You are crazy! Do you know how cold the water is in this area?") works but "Combien l'eau est-elle froide dans la région" ( ""How cold is the water in the area?") ? doesn't.
My point is that we can extract some logic to understand why sometimes "combien" and "à quel point" are synonyms and why the are not in certain cases. A rule of thumb could be to avoid : "combien" in a interrogative tense.
But as you can see, some interrogative phrases works. This is because the interrogative sentence in which "combien" works is "rhetorical". You don't really ask " how much" the person is sad, you want someone to realize "how much" a person is sad. It's more an emphasis than a question.
But, such a use ( "combien" instead of "à quel point" ) is a bit more classic ( uniquely in the declarative way). it can be used to add a "fancy" touch.
I apologize for the mistakes, and for the long comment. Hope this is useful and not more confusing! :p
Thanks for additions, Mpenzi. Kind and constructive feedback. It furthers the conversation and will help my viewers.
My channel's aim is not to say "say X like this and only like this. Never like this." So there will always be ways I can improve.
I just aim to generalise and simplify complex parts of the language for English speakers so they can move forward with confidence.
@@FrenchinPlainSight You're welcome! Yes, I get that.
I didn't mean that there is only one way to say it. I thought it was funny that you pointed out that the two words were synonyms but not really. My goal was to give a simple rule to understand this difference.
I'm sorry if my comment sounded aggressive or lecturing.
I think it's because of my poor English.
Keep it up, your channel is great.
@@mpenziwamungu731 No your comment came across as friendly, complimentary, and constructive. You should see some other comments in here that make no attempt to do that.
Your English is far from poor!
It's a big challenge to go into detail on ALL subtleties in a short RUclips video. It's not the right platform. One thing I've had to learn is to filter out what learners don't need. That does mean that native speakers will find gaps in what I say. I'm forever learning and improving.
But, the video is only one component. The discussion that it creates can help people so much!
So, come back any time.
D'ailleur, tu viens d'où ?
@@FrenchinPlainSight Thank you! Practicing my English was one of the reasons I commented. I try to use english on many contexts.
Your video has been recommanded by the youtube algorithm. I like to watch foreign french teachers ( especially those who are native speakers of a language I want to learn myself) because I think they point some difficulties and misunderstandings I have myself, as a language learner.
For example, your video on the prepositions pointed out why I'm always embarrassed when I have to decide wether or not I should use "that" when I speak english :p.
To answer your question, I'm French and Comorian ( born and raised) , and French and Comorian are my native languages. However, I have lived in France for seven years now, and mostly in the south, at Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and Vitrolles( I recognized the occitan flag :p).
I wish you all the best for your channel!
@@mpenziwamungu731 Not aggressive or lecturing at all, but much appreciated instead. Now, si je parlais le Français comme tu (permet-moi) écris l'Anglais... j'en serais bien hereux. Bonne soirée, et merci.
Grammar books just don't get the how construction problem across as clearly as this. Great job. Guess it goes back to listening and speaking as often as you can, in order to improve your french.
1:30 When talking about a recipe, we'll more often say "On a besoin de quelle quantité de farine pour faire ce gâteau ?" rather than using "combien".
Using "combien" here still is 100% correct french.
Thank you for this subject. These subtleties of language are missing in my studies of French.
I love the subtleties :D. But it's true that we shouldn't get carried away with them to the point that they stop us speaking. But if that's not the case, we can have fun being geeks.
Thank you, this topic has been a stumbling block for me for a very long time. Your video is very helpful!
Wow. This video is exploding on RUclips. Thanks so much guys!
Thanks to feedback in the comments, I'd like to acknowledge that in my example sentence "On a besoin de combien de farine ?" it should be something like "On a besoin de combien de grammes de farine ?". A small mistake that doesn't change what I'm teaching. You still wouldn't use "à quel point" there.
I'd like to ask any native speakers who read this after watching the video to please give *kind, constructive* feedback. Remember, tone of voice is so hard to achieve online via written message.
On my channel, I am doing my best generalise and simplify complex concepts for English speakers so they can differentiate between 2 things and use French with more confidence. The goal for my students is never to tell them to aim for perfection, just to clear the path for them to move forward.
I will continue to do my best to put out the most accurate information in my videos, because I never want to intentionally mislead people. I will make French mistakes and I will always be open to corrections in order to improve, like any human being should. But please remember there is a human being on the other end :)
Bonne journée !
5:34 In casual conversation talking about sports you'd more often hear :
"Tu fais du sport tous les combien ?"
or "Tu fais du sport combien de fois par semaine ?"
Or if a sentence before already gave you context that you're talking about sport :
"T'en fais tous les combien ?"
or "T'en fais combien de fois par semaine ?"
J'aime trop tes vidéos! Ils se sont facilement comprendre!
As a general rule, we use « combien » for things that you can put a mathematical number on. It applies to all material objects. « How many » always translates to combien. « How much » is not as straightforward to translate. « À quel (point) » is used for more immaterial concepts of quantities (like feelings). With things like time, speed or frequency, it’s a little bit tricky, because those are immaterial things that can be expressed by factual numbers (hours, kilometers per hour or hertz). But in French, unless you specifically ask for a finite number of those values (in which case, the English equivalent question would turn out quite different), you have to use the « à quel.le … » form.
Like all rules, there are exceptions and you will have to experiment them to learn them. As a matter of simply being understood, « combien » is fine even if inaccurate. French people will still understand what you’re trying to ask, that may not be the case if you try to use « à quel point » in the wrong context.
Learning a language is not as easy as just translating the words from a sentence in your native language (it sometimes just does the trick, fortunately). In many cases, you have to first try to shape the sentence in a way that makes sense in the targeted language, then translate the words. Don’t try to learn by heart foreign expressions, try to understand the foreign logic behind these expressions.
Thank you …,love the examples AND the translations!!
Alex, tu ne vas pas croire à quel point cette vidéo est utile. Je me demande combien de temps il a fallu pour la filmer.
DEUX EXCELLENTES PHRASES !
La filmer....20 minutes.
L'écrire...plusieurs heures sur plusieurs jours :p.
we also say " tu conduisais vite? to have the answer about the speed. Or " il fait froid dehors?" It ’s just shorter .
Merci Alex, j'apprend le francais avec Lingoda depuis Septembre mais je besoin de pratique parler le francais! As you can see... so spoken and conversational French is so helpful. I've never heard 'a quel point' before so I will remember this, wonderfully explained by Mpenzi too!
Hello, just discovered your channel and I'm finding it so useful - thank you. I live in France. Having reached a certain level with the language, I'm struggling to achieve that next level, a real conversational fluency. Your reference to fillers, ways to start sentences and join phrases is really helpful. You have a nice teaching style.
Je ne savais jamais à quel point une vidéo pourrait nous aider à améliorer nos compétences du français. :-)
Merci bien !
... but we say 'une vidéo' in French ;)
nos compétences 'en' français*
:)
Je n'aurais jamais imaginé à quel point une vidéo pouvait nous aider à améliorer nos compétences en français. :)
Très chouette cours. Même pour un francophone qui veut mieux maîtriser l'anglais. Bravo !
Great to see your videos getting the number of views they deserve!
Glad you think so Tom. You're the latest comment on the latest video before we hit 20k subs! Merci beaucoup :)
For the exercice example where you are right that "A quel point" won't work and the "A quelle frequence" is working great and will be heard, it feels a bit elaborate to use this. You mention we'd go 'other ways' about it, and one you can use, which could be seen kind of related would be: "tous les combien": "tu fais du sport tous les combien?". I think this is a fairly common use to cover this kind of case.
Wonderful input. Thank you so much Stéphane !
"tu fais du sport tous les combien?" ne me semble pas correct en français... on peut dire "tout les combien de jours fait tu du sport"
Thanks so much, Stefane!
I assume that is based on the structure..
"Je fais du sport tous les jours.
Tu fais du sport tous les combien?"
Thanks for your helpful addition.
And here is an awfully incorrect expression, although often used : 'c'est le combientième ?' (for ex in a race : il est arrivé le combientième ? meaning 'What rank did it reach?') For the date in the month, we usually say 'on est le combien aujourd'hui ?', althought this is also incorrect, we should say 'le quantième du mois sommes-nous ?' (which would make everybody burst out laughing, except in some well-educated circles ).
@@Serendip98 I would commonly say "on est le quantième ?"
respect man, I like your pronounciation. Tu parle vraiment bien le français, ça fait plaisir!
Je suis français, je ne vais donc pas te dire combien j'apprécie tes vidéos, ni à quel point elles me sont utiles, mais elles mm'en apprennent beaucoup sur la langue anglaise, et je passe un bon moment à chaque fois.
Very cool video. i like that youre making content in english and the fact that you explain the way french actually speak their language. keep it up
Presentation is everything. this was so non threatening, put me at ease and consequently, I retained the information. I am a very non French New Yorker. Thanks for this video is terrific.
Glad it was helpful!
If you want to know how cold it is (i.e. temperature), you can say "Il fait combien ici/la-dedans, etc"? with (de degres understood). You can also say things like "il fait tres froid la-bas?" or simply "quelle est la temperature?"
Oui tu peut dire Il fait combien ici/la-dedans ou il fait tres froid la-bas ou quelle est la temperature ect...
Wooow so interesting! As a Canadian French I never realized how intranslatable this was. I'd like to point out out that (at least in Canada) "à quel point" is awkward in most situations. You can say it, sure, but like you said, often the best is to reformulate; for example:
"How cold is it?"
(Canadian) "C'est-tu si froid [que ça]?"
(Metropolitan) "Est-ce [que c'est] si froid [que ça]?"
"si...que" and "tant...que" are much more natural for measurables. It's definetly linguistically distinct, but it will yield exactly the same information. And it explains why often when anglophones ask measurable questions francophones will reply negatively (e.g.: "it's not that cold" -> "c'est pas si froid [que ça]" which actually means "it's warm").
I would only use "à quel point" when the emphasis is on the scale, e.g.:
"Do you know *how much* trouble you've been?"
"Sais-tu *à quel point* tu fais chier?"
Montrealer here -- Charles is correct - 'à quel point' sounds really unnatural in these sentences. Those Parisiens really need to learn how to speak French properly. And seriously laughing at "Sais-tu à quel point tu fais chier?" [although I would definitely say: "Tu sais-tu à quel point tu fais chier?"]
I think I have never had the need to used it cause when in doubt, I ususally find a different way of saying it, although, as a native spanish speaker, I ususally struggle less with grammar than english speaker, as our grammar is much more similar, but it was nice to expand my french a bit more, je savais pas just à quel point j’avais besoin d’apprendre ça
It's wonderful how you speak in English and in French! I loved it! Adoré!
Merci pour la vidéo! I have been learning French at my own pace for quite a while now. Je le comprend mais je n'ai pas persones pour le parle. En fait, c'est mom première fois que je vois "à quel point". C'est une très intéressant et informative vidéo!! Merci😊
De rien ! Et bien joué d'avoir persévéré jusqu'ici.
Oui c'est difficile de pratiquer quand on est seul, mais avec Internet il y a plein de sites où tu peux trouver des gens avec qui pratiquer. Il faut juste être ouvert à essayer quelque chose de nouveau, ce qui ne sera pas difficile pour toi vu que tu apprends par toi-même. Tu es déjà fort :). J'ai fait une vidéo sur les outils Internet pour s'améliorer en français oral. Bon courage ! ruclips.net/video/rs1H0qdS6gY/видео.html
@@FrenchinPlainSight Je connais plusieurs francophones expatriés qui pratiquent le français essentiellement au téléphone avec leur famille (bien-sûr) et en ligne à travers des jeux où ils rejoignent un groupe (guilde/association/...) francophone. Y a pas des tonnes de jeux en ligne où les gens causent beaucoup par contre et le français y est parfois massacré...
Good point about how things sound to the native ear. People are just used to standard usages, since everyday language is a social property. Combien can never really work in the simple reformulation, because the question: 'how important is this?' isn't really asking "how much/many", but 'in what way/how far?'
Super helpful videos - thank you! First, you have excellent taste in choosing exactly the gaps that even people like me who have studied French for a long time can still find confusing or hard to remember. Second, I like how you cover a cluster of related expressions or words and explain the similarities and differences. That makes it much easier for my brain to retain these later when I'm speaking.
It's beside the point but «À quel point est-ce important» also works (it's slightly more formal if anything) and its grammar is less intimidating than "est-ce que c'est".
Interesting. I studied French to A level (albeit quite a few years ago now!), and still remember quite a lot of what I learned. But I don't ever recall learning about "à quel point". Thanks!
I did A Levels last year and never learnt about it!
I only learned about it, as is the case so often, by realising I needed it. I was writing a survey intended French speakers and I wanted to ask the question "how important is it that...". My flatmate at the time told me about "à quel point" and I've never forgotten it. Wow, that was 6 years ago!
@@FrenchinPlainSight I came across this video on my youtube recommended, and French is part of my degree now so this is really helpful! Goodness knows when, if ever, I would have learnt it otherwise, thanks!!
Salut Alex, avant toute chose, félicitations pour tes vidéos, tes analyses de la langue française, de ses subtilités et de son utilisation sont remarquables et tes propos clairs et précis ! Si tu ne l'as pas déjà fait (désolé, je n'ai pas encore eu le temps de regarder toutes tes vidéos), j'aimerais beaucoup que tu analyses le français de Timothée Chalamet, il a un excellent niveau, son père étant français. Merci pour ton talent, ta bienveillance et tes sourires 🙂
The thing about teaching in English is that there are other channels that teach in French. The way you approach it is a good preparation for the all-in-French channels. You're helping me to ease my way back into a language I kind of fell out of love with
Thanks a lot!
I see my English content as also an alternative. A learner is not necessarily better because they can watch all in French. Some points are so specific that even with a high level are better learned in English. I've been happy to see there are other people in the world that think the same :D.
@@FrenchinPlainSight works for me! :)
Ahhh brilliant "to what extent", always love these little nuggets to help me remember
Niccccce Adam.
"A quel point" is used very often in France, and I personnaly use it almost everyday. / Dans le langage de tous les jours, on pourrait très bien dire aussi à un ami :"t'étais à combien?" pour lui demander à quelle vitesse il conduisait, il comprendra très bien, mais c'est du langage entre potes...a phrase que tu as donnée en exemple: "A quelle vitesse tu conduisais?" est bien meilleure d'un point de vue grammatical, et c'est du très bon français. / As a frenchman, I'm so fed up with the following big mistake from my compatriots: "j'ai été au cinéma" which is verry incorrect french (yet, 7 out of 10 french people say that), it should/must be : "je suis allé(e) au cinéma", even some journalists make this mistake.../ Well done Alex, you're excellent at teaching french, you speak very well our language. ;) The "Education nationale" would need someone like you to help french pupils improve their english!
Also "à quel point" = literally "to which point", combien (how/how much) can just be its short version in many of the examples described in the video.
I remember travelling to Paris
specifically a town outside Paris
and realising that my schoolboy French
made me sound like Charles de Gaulle
giving a speech
and the locals spoke
unlike the textbooks
It was an eyeopener.
And it's followed you to this day. Touching!
@@FrenchinPlainSight
Well it was my first revelation
that the point of language learning
is to communicate
not to be grammatically perfect
and listening to native speakers
doing everyday transactions
was key to communicating.
@@johncrwarner I wouldn't say the right way of speaking a foreign language is to aim for the native way. The French prefers you being grammaticaly correct than sounding native. Which the latter, in my opinion, is almost impossible.
Also, pardon me for all the mispellings and errors, English is not my mother tongue.
Thanks for this bit: somehow this was completely missed when I had French in school (ages ago ;-) ). Even back then, it was painfully obvious we weren't being taught the language ordinary people were speaking in France. I'll subscribe and see what can be salvaged ;-)
I don't think anyone learns this in school!
Combien ça faisait mal. No. No.
Super accent vous avez. Vous êtes très bon et en constante amélioration.
‘To which point’ is the direct translation which is never cited and yet may elucidate the point to which such a phrase is useful
Hello, excellent video ! I think the it does a great job at explaining the subtleties ! As you explain it, a simple translation word for word is sadly rarely the best option and sometimes even really weird ! It might be a personal/regional (belgium) particularity, but to me "combien" is really connected to numbers and countable things. The sentences with "combien je t'aime" and even "combien de farine" sound really weird to me (I'd even say old-fashioned for "combien je t'aime"), because those are uncountable things. If anything, "combien de farine" means how many flour bags. I don't think I would ever use it, I'd say "quelle quantité de farine" instead, although I might say this when thinking about it and use it anyway when I'm not paying attention, that can happen too when analyzing language ! Finally, if you really want to use combien when discussing driving speed, you can, since it's a number : you can simply ask "tu roulais à combien ?".
Merci alors "bis repetita placent" pour moi XD je viens de dire la même chose :p je ne suis pas belge (ni du nord de la France) mais je ressens la même chose. Et je me dis aussi qu'en parlant vite sans réfléchir je pourrais peut-être dire "combien de farine" vite fait au lieu de "quelle quantité de farine" peut-être à la place de "combien de grammes de farine".
It's so useful to learn the idioms which are different from English. So many language courses focus on the easy bits that are more like English or easily translatable. I have never had any confidence in spoken French because all those lessons at school gave me no idea how to properly construct an idiomatic statement. Thank you so much!
I can't even remember which idiom(s) I put in this video!
I usually don't encourage learning them until comfortable with the language because they aren't the best use of one's time who is looking for speaking confidence.
@@FrenchinPlainSight sure, I'm at the stage where I can hold a simple conversation and understand basic phrases without subtitles / lookups and what has held me back for years is not knowing properly idiomatic French. I think French is stricter than English in this regard. I note that English borrowed the term via Middle French (and Greek in origin).
Spot on video Alex. Maybe your best yet ! Also I'm very impressed with the new website and all the merche. I was going to write a couple of phrases but they were pretty much what everyone else has said , along the lines of « Bravo Alex ! Je ne peux pas te dire à quel point tes vidéos m’inspirent. Combien de fois je me suis demandé ce genre de truc » Oh well, there you go, I've written them anyway. :)
Ne sous-estime jamais le pouvoir de tes paroles Heather, même si elles ont déjà été évoquées par des autres.
Merci infiniment !
Not really anything in the way of merch right now. I'd love to get something going at some point :D
Thank you for the kind words regarding the website 😍
Je suis français et j'apprends l'anglais, regarder vos vidéos me permet de comprendre les différences entre ces deux langues, thank you
Parfait !
I’d never heard ‘a quel point’ til now. Super helpful, just subscribed!
Thanks!
En réponse à ta question sur [Je n’ai jamais pensé à quel point ça faisait mal]* / [Je n’ai jamais pensé combien ça faisait mal]* :
Le problème ici est celui du régime du verbe penser.
Chaque verbe, dans quelque langue que ce soit, a un ou plusieurs régimes possibles, qui peuvent éventuellement correspondre à des sens différents.
Par exemple
« Se demander » a entre autres les régimes suivants :
1) Transitif direct - je me le demande (cela ne fonctionne qu’avec le pronom « le », qui résume ici une proposition interrogative indirecte
2) Suivi d’une proposition interrogative directe - Je me demande « où va-t-on ? »
3) Suivi d’une proposition interrogative indirecte je me demande si/comment/pourquoi elle est partie
« Penser » a entre autres les régimes suivants :
1) Intransitif - Je pense donc je suis (exercer la faculté de penser)
2) Transitif direct (avec deux sens différents, l’opinion et la réflexion philosophique sur un objet) - Je pense la même chose que toi. Le philosophe pense la liberté.
3) Suivi d’un infinitif (sens : envisager de) - Je pense partir bientôt.
4) Proposition subordonnée avec « que » (sens : opinion, évaluation… ) - Je pense que c’est bon.
5) Proposition affirmative ou interrogative directe (action de se parler à soi-même) : j’ai pensé « les choses vont mal », j’ai pensé « Comment est-elle partie ? »
6) Penser à : Je pense à toi, je pense à mon enfance, j’y ai bien sûr pensé (sens : « songer, rêvasser » ou « se souvenir de » ou « avoir une pensée pour » ou « tenir compte de »)
En revanche "penser" n’a PAS le régime de la proposition interrogative indirecte. On ne peut pas dire [Je pense si elle est partie]* ni [Je pense comment elle est partie]* [Je pense pourquoi elle est partie]* On ne peut donc pas davantage dire [Je pense combien cela fait mal]* ni [J’ai pensé combien cela faisait mal]* ni [Je n’ai jamais pensé combien cela faisait mal]* (« combien » ou « à quel point », cela ne change rien à l’affaire).
Les quelques phrases qui précèdent contiennent donc le même barbarisme : à savoir un verbe à « régime foireux ». Elles me gênent à l’oreille, et gênent certainement la plupart des francophones, même si cette gêne peut leur sembler difficile à justifier.
Pour exprimer la même idée, le francophone se tournera spontanément vers un verbe permettant cette construction, c'est à dire possédant le régime convenable : « se demander », par exemple. « Je ne me suis jamais demandé combien/à quel point cela faisait mal ». Cette phrase-là est parfaitement française et naturelle.
Cela dit, le linguiste pourra également réfléchir aux causes de cette faute. Elles tiennent sans doute à un calque malheureux de l'anglais (car "think" n'a pas les mêmes régimes que "penser") mais également au télescopage entre le régime "penser à" et le premier mot de la locution "à quel point".
Veeery interesting. As a french, when my english friends asked me that question, I used to answer: use "combien" when you could count it( 1, 2, 150, 27, etc...) or answer with a number ( il fait 25°, il en faut 600gr., elle arrive dans 20 mn...) and another word when you could not count it or answer with a number. But listening to you, and reading some interesting comments, I' m a little puzzled. 🤣🤣🤣
Now you can imagine how hard it was to write this video. I kept finding contradictions ! Haha
Could you please make a video listing what French speaking YT channels and podcasts you have used and/or recommend? Love from Glasgow.
Great! Good idea to pick points that don’t translate from English. Cheers merci
You are a gifted teacher: lucky us.
Without viewers like you, French in Plain Sight would be nothing. Merci pour ton soutien, Wayne.
Merci pour cette vidéo. A l'école on va passer un examen afin de nous préparer pour nos "A levels" et je vais essayer d'utiliser ce que j'ai appris dans cette vidéo
Ah génial ! Bon courage pour ton examen !
True, 'à quel point' is right, but only used by educated people. If we want to say 'how cold is the water?', for ex, we vould probably say 'est-ce que l'eau est vraiment froide ?' (is the water really cold?) : 'à quel point l'eau est-elle froide?' would sound a little '19th century style' or pedantic, although understandable. In other situations, it would perhaps sound more natural.
I had the same thought. No one in France in the 21st century will talk like the examples in this video.
Très bonne vidéo d'explication pour nos amis anglophones. I learned things... by reversing it.
haha. Excellent.
Reversing*
@@FrenchinPlainSight thank you ^^
Merci! Tu me donnes de l'espoir.
As a french i swear this man speaks better french than actual frenchies :D
Comme le singulier et le pluriel se prononcent de la même façon, des fois il peut y avoir des ambiguïtés. "Tu as utilisé combien de farineS pour faire ce pain? Deux, de la farine de blé et de la farine de seigle." vs "tu as utilisé combien de farine pour faire ce pain? 300g pour cette boule." Personnellement je ne suis pas très fan de la deuxième formulation avec "combien" pour des objets non dénombrables même si c'est correct évidemment dans ce cas (surtout si on considère qu'on demande "combien de grammes de farine?" . En fait dans les deux cas pour retirer toute ambiguïté on peut dire "tu as utilisé combien de farines différentes?" et "tu as utilisé quelle quantité de farine (ou combien de grammes de farine)?". Et comme vu dans un autre commentaire, "combien" pour dire "à quel point" résonne un peu "fancy" aux oreilles même si ce n'est pas du tout choquant.
Great lesson! I really needed that!
So glad!
Bravo pour cette vidéo très fouillée et très travaillée !
Juste un mot (je suis Français de langue maternelle française) : La question ouverte (ouverte signifie réponse différente de oui/non) "à quelle vitesse est-ce que tu conduisais ?" est correcte. Mais aujourd'hui (21ème siècle) vous ne l'entendrez (presque) pas. C'est beaucoup trop long.
Vous entendrez plutôt la question fermée (réponse oui/non) "Tu conduisais vite ?" / "Vous conduisiez vite ?" C'est bien plus bref, donc bien plus efficace.
Bien qu'il y ait une différence de sens, on reste dans le même contexte : la personne interrogée dira finalement à quelle vitesse elle conduisait et ne se contentera pas de répondre par oui ou par non.
I’ve been enjoying your videos. Thank you. I noticed your Occitanie cross. We are in the Aveyron.
Oh cool!
Je ne sais pas COMBIEN de temps, tu as mis pour faire et partager cette vidéo.
Mais tu ne sais pas À QUEL POINT , cela me fait plaisir. ^^
Combien tu fais de sport (par semaine ?) works pretty fine but À quel point would mean "to which extent do you work out" and would implies "how hard do you exercise" not how much
You’re so good professor!
I appreciate that!
So, so practical and usefull lesson!!! ...Thank you very much
Glad you enjoyed it!
I would like to give my point of view, for some example sound a bit odd to me.
For instance:
"Il a senti à quel point j'étais triste" doesn't sound really natural to me. It's seems that we would rather say "Il a senti que j'étais triste" or if you want to emphase "Il a senti que j'étais très triste" . Moreover is that case: "il a senti combien j'étais triste" is actually ok (and I personally would more likely say combien than "à quel point" in this instance"), but is perhaps a bit old fashioned, yet completely natural. I feel that the same goes for "important" and "cold", thus saying "J'ignore combien l'eau est froide" is correct, yet again, perhaps a bit old fashioned... (and it's not the translation of "I wonder how cold the water is"), same goes with "Tu sais combien ton amitié est importante" (You know how important is your is friendship) is fine.
But you're totally right to say that it depends of whom you're talking ("j'ignore combien cette phrase est incorrect", or "je ne sais pas à quel point cette phrase est incorrect"). Because I guess you can generally find a way to say both in French, although "combien" seems to me to be a bit more "literary"/formal/old fashioned (posh/snob even at times) and "à quel point" (but it's very personal) seems very technical/straightforward.
Anyway it's very advanced to think of such nuances... But I find video like yours very interesting because they make me ponder about my native-tongue and question it. Moreover it gives clues to understand the way French conceptualises things compare to other languages.
"il a senti à quel point j'étais triste" "il a senti que j'étais triste" et "il a senti que j'étais très triste" sont trois phrases aux sens différents je pense. "A quel point j'étais triste" indique un niveau de tristesse atteint qui n'est pas précisé. Ça peut se référer à un état sous-entendu, partagé avec l'interlocuteur ou dissimulé par pudeur par exemple. "très triste" serait un cas spécifique de cet état de tristesse. Il y a quand même des nuances de sens entre ces trois phrases qui ne sont pas parfaitement interchangeables.
@@chemfloflo6374 Je suis d'accord; ce que j'ai voulu signifier ici c'est que, même si j'admet la subjectivité de cette remarque, c'est que à quel point j'étais triste me semble assez peu naturel en Français, et je me suis risqué à chercher des alternatives. Mais la vérité c'est qu'ici, pour exprimer la nuances dont vous parlez je dirai bien plus volontiers " Il y a senti combien j'étais triste" ou dans un l'élan de lyrisme "Il a senti l'étendu de ma tristesse" ... le truc marrant, c'est dans une conversation ça ne me dérangerait pas " à quel point j'étais triste" ... Mais si on réfléchi à la manière la plus naturelle de le dire, je trouve qu'il y a dans "à quel point" une idée un peu mathématique, une idée de quasi-précision qui se marie mal avec l'idée des émotions, de la tristesse. (mais c'est très subjectif/personnel)
L'autre idée c'est que en général l'étendu de la tristesse n'est pas si importante (mais c'est très discutable et de toute façon c'est hors sujet).
Mais vous avez raison.
the issue here is polarisation, i.e. idioms that work differently in the affirmative as opposed to negation. "à quel point" works better when there is an implied sense of negation: he never knew, he never realised, if only he could have understood, only at this very late stage has it become apparent...
In your example of the nuance where you could use "combien", i feel like i would have rather used "comment". But maybe it's a regional thing. I'm often corrected on my grammar since i left Saint Etienne.
I'm from Lyon, and I'd also say "comment"
@@atwer I will be cautiously happy about that. We are supposed to hate each other after all ;)
crinière, that is...! Your lessons are awesome!
Merci bien. Je ne le savais pas, pas du tout. Les nuances sont également très utiles. Passez une bonne journée.
Glad it was helpful!
Merci beacoup Monsier! J'adore vos leson!
Avec plaisir!
Very impressed with your explanation...👌🇪🇸🇬🇧
Merci beaucoup ! Glad you liked it!
Super interesting. "On a besoin de combien de farine" isn't how a French speaker would say, however. "On a besoin de quelle quantité de farine", or "On a besoin de combien de grammes de farine", is how it would be said.
Ah well. I can't be right all the time :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight it is similar to the few/little and many/much distinction in English, which is by the way _en voie de disparition_
Hi, 1:25 you used the example "On a besoin de combien de farine pour faire ce gâteau ?"
However, even though it works, it's still a little bit.. kinda weird to hear.
Combien is literally "How many", it is indeed often used as "How much" but in some cases, it's better to use something different like "De quelle quantité de farine a t-on besoin pour faire ce gâteau ?"
I can't really think of a general rule so here are some examples where "combien" sounds weird
"Combien d'eau tu veux dans ton verre ?"
"Combien d'air as-tu inspiré ?"
"Combien de sang un humain a-t-il dans son corps"
"Combien de riz veux-tu dans ton assiette ?"
So it's mainly about, can you count that quantity or not, for instance, you can't use "combien" with liquids.
However, if you add a unit, then it perfectly makes sense.
Let me correct the previous examples :
"Je remplis ton verre jusqu'à où ?"
"Quelle quantité d'air as-tu inspiré ?"
"Combien de litres de sang un humain a-t-il dans son corps"
"Combien de cuillères riz veux-tu que je mette dans ton assiette ?"
Hey. Thanks. After receiving the same feedback (regarding the farine) several times I updated the pinned comment to reflect it.
My friend told me today though "Ah, in everyday French it's something that's very possible to hear."
Love the format of this!
Thank you! I'm curious, if you watched the last 2 videos before this one (toujours and encore), what makes the "format" of this one stand out?
Thanks :)
Hmm it’s hard to explain and it’s such a slight difference. First I like the intro vibe better, how you phrased the question and why I should know the difference.
You do it in other videos but this one just immediately engaged me because I would have just said combien. Also I like the thumbnail and this was just the right amount of discussion and education
The problem with learning a new language... in our native tongue (I speak American-lish) we know by instinct what doesn't sound right... like if I say "He are a good boy," we would know that just isn't correct, and trying to gain that instinct is very difficult in a new language... When I lived in a French speaking country (Belgium), I always messed up the gender, saying nouveau instead of nouvelle. So it will always be a process of always getting things wrong, sad to say.
Est-ce que vous pourriez faire une vidéo sur la différence entre utiliser et s'en servir de?
Actuellement, je connais pas la différence !
A little mistake, une petite erreur: Best way to say "how much flour.....?" is not " combien de farine" but "quelle quantité de farine" (literally "which amount of flour) or "combien de gramme/ de kilogramme de farine..." (literally " how many gram/kilogram of flour...").
"combien de farine.." sounds like "how MANY flour"
Thanks
Á quel point j'aime cette video? Je l'aime énormement. Merci Alex.
Don't want to add another layer here, but in French canadien we rarely use à quel point, we replace it with comment, most of the time. À quel point would sound very formal here, but obviously, not wrong.
Great video. Tres claire!
Thank you for this! Perhaps another way to think of this phrase is "how very" as in "Do you know how very tired I am?" Savez-vous a quel point je suis fatigue? You are not asking for a specific quantity. Is this correct?
Yes I suppose that would work, but then I'm not sure how to differentiate between "how tired" and "how very tired". Perhaps tone of voice would communicate the difference. What do you think Susan?
@@FrenchinPlainSight Maybe that would be the real difference between "combien" and "à quel point". Just like the english "to what extent", with "à quel point" I feel something like it's a step on a path with a direction (to, à), a step point, a kind of limit reached while "combien" is just the fact of being at a point. For example, "à quel point est-il énervé ?" might imply that he's already rather angry at least. While a sentence with "combien" would just ask for the state of his anger. Well that's how I feel the thing but not sure how to write it down with words ^^ however I think that now, both expressions can mean the same.
Excellent explanation of the nuances!!! Thanks
Excellent to hear :)
"A quel point" est totalement nouveau à moi ! Merci !
nouveau POUR moi ;-)
@@mimsoplusss876 Merci ! :-)
J'esperais que ce serait le cas :). Avec plaisir !
Question for you: What about the word "si?" I lived in Brussels for a short time, and I seem to remember hearing "si" used as a translation for "how + adjective." For example, "Je ne savais pas si mal ç'était," "I didn't know how bad it was." Thoughts? Merci!
My thoughts are that that looks wrong and I haven't heard it. But those are just my thoughts. A native would be better placed for this one. Grammatically, it looks wrong to me.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Well, I could be remembering it wrong, 20 years on! Maybe my brain mixed it up with something like "pas si mal que ça." I'll be interested to "si" ;-) what a native speaker has to say. Thanks!
great content mate!
Cheers Russ
We should meet up sometime eventually
Cette vidéo est également très utile pour moi qui tente de conserver mon anglais. Je réalise combien il est important de travailler la langue régulièrement 😛. Thanks a lot.
Haha. D'une pierre deux coups : j'aide les anglophones à mieux comprendre le français par rapport à leur langue et les francophones à travailler leur anglais. Gagnant gagnant ?
@@FrenchinPlainSight exactement ! 😃
3:34 If speaking to one person, would you really use "vous" to tell them how much you love them?
Did I say it was to one person? Sorry if so! The stock video I put on screen showed it, true, but when I wrote it I think I was just going for a) a phrase with vous, just to mix it up and b) I imagined speaking to 2 people such as children.
yes, this is a common occurrence in French farce.
Merci, bon travail!
Merci ! Alors, tout était clair ? :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight Je ne suis pas débutant mais quand meme la vidéo m'a aidé a y voir plus clair.
@@cefnonn Cool. Par contre, je dirais que ce sujet n'est pas pour les débutants.
Vous etes merveilleux.
Super video Merci
Bonjour, on peut aussi dire "à quel point est-ce important?"
A quel point = to what extent
Also in French which everybody uses in every call centre you can ever imagine in the UK is bear with me apparently as I was told by French very very large which I won't mention electricity supplier they basically said it means getting to know somebody in special way and you end up getting pregnant which is not thing to say to somebody that you never going to me over the so everytime somebody says bear with me what are actually saying is do you want children with which is why the company doesn't say it and everybody else so I couldn't agree more
Salut Alex. I’m French and personnellement, j’utilise très rarement l’expression à quel point ! Je m’exprime d’une autre façon. Une petite remarque : Il est plus correct, même à l’oral et de façon informelle de dire ne pas que simplement pas. Oublier le ne me fait mal aux oreilles 😃
Bravo pour les vidéos très utiles pour ceux qui comme moi souhaitent progresser en anglais. NB: ô combien, la forme exaltée en fonction des circonstances.
Very useful video !!
Glad you think so!
Merci beaucoup !
Comment se fait-il que je ne connais pas "a quel point?".
Combien pour le chapeau rouge?
Je n'avais pas devine a quel point elle etait heureuse avec ce gars.
can you do a video on how to formulate sentences with the word “to”? like for example how would i say this question: what does that mean to you? en francais?
Très bonne idée !
If you wanted to say 'I didn't know how cold the cold was' would it be 'Je ne savais pas à quel point l'eau était froide
Does this make sense? Merci
Yes it would be, grammatically. But as some natives have pointed out, maybe more natural sounding ways. Have a look in the comments.