Question 1

Why is the order Je lis souvent instead of Je souvent lis like in English?

Accepted Answer

In French, short adverbs of frequency like souvent (often) are placed immediately after the conjugated verb, never before it. So 'I often read' must be structured as Je lis souvent.

Question 2

Why do we need pour before améliorer? Doesn't améliorer already mean 'to improve'?

Accepted Answer

While the infinitive améliorer does mean 'to improve', using pour plus an infinitive is the standard way to express a purpose or goal in French. It translates closer to 'in order to improve'. Without pour, the sentence would feel grammatically broken, like saying 'I often read improve my vocabulary'.

Question 3

Is vocabulaire masculine or feminine?

Accepted Answer

It is masculine, which is why it uses the masculine possessive adjective mon (my). As a helpful tip, many French words ending in -aire (which often correspond to English words ending in '-ary') are masculine, though there are a few feminine exceptions like une grammaire.

Question 4

Since this lesson is about parallel comparatives, how would I change this sentence to say 'The more I read, the more I improve my vocabulary'?

Accepted Answer

You would use the parallel comparative structure taught in this lesson: Plus je lis, plus j'améliore mon vocabulaire. Notice that we use the conjugated verb j'améliore instead of the infinitive, and we drop the word pour because we are directly correlating two actions rather than expressing a goal.

Je lis souvent pour améliorer mon vocabulaire.

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