●Key to exercises
1aLes puissantes colonnes d’air chaud sont formées au-dessus du plancher brûlant des déserts.
bA ce rythme, l’océan Atlantqiue est traversé en moins d’une semaine.
cOr, cette perturbation thermique peut être propagée loin, très loin...●Text 6: “Venez acheter du bon riz cuit!” Key to analysis
2 In French most adjectives follow the noun they qualify. This is the case for paisibleand cuit.
However, a number of short adjectives such as bonand grandprecede the noun. Adjectives of colour
such as blanchenormally follow the noun. When a noun is qualified by two adjectives, one of which
normally precedes and one which normally follows the noun, they both occupy their normal position
e. g. du bon riz cuit.
4 This is an example of inversion in an interrogative sentence: interrogative adverb + verb + subject +
object.
5 en distribuantis a gerund (en+ present participle). A gerund can only be used to refer to the subject
of a sentence. Its meaning here corresponds to the English ‘while’ + -ing.
6 du is a partitive article. It expresses an indefinite quantity such as du café(= some coffee).
7 After the negative constructions ne... ni... nior sans... ni... ni, no article is used. It means
‘either... or’.
8 In order to convey the English ‘without + -ing’ French always uses sans+ infinitive.258 Keys