Ambiguous phrase

“Il y a plus de lait dans le frigo.” ( In module 12.8)

In casual speech it means the opposite to what it does in formal speech. How would the listener know what to believe?

Bonjour William.

I posed the same question a couple of weeks ago. It is rather hard to believe.

Mitchell's reply is below:

“Yeah, objectively this makes no sense, but you will hear your example - verbatim - in France. It's similar to how some people use double negatives in American English (albeit the reverse issue), which technically makes no sense and essentially confuses the meaning of the sentence, but it's so pervasive now that it's accepted.”

Robert

There was a discussion about this on the forum about a year ago: https://app.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/french/french-grammar/il-y-a-plus-de-lait-dans-le-frigo-lesson-128-informal-negation

which might help!

Pete

(P.S. Mitchell, has Liss left the team?)

I meant that to be a hyperlink; not sure how to do that.

Bonjour Robert. Merci for the comment. It's the first time I used the forum, so I'm sorry I missed your earlier post. I guess the auditor of that phrase would check if he had any doubt whether the milk was there or not! I am revising level 2 of the French course but it's a slow job for un vieux homme. It's an enjoyable course.

William

Thanks to Peter--252. I think that wraps it up nicely. The milk has curdled by now I should think.

Bill

Bonjour Peter.

Thanks for that link. Liss's is an interesting explanation. It's too bad that it's not re-enforced by the original audio passages in Lesson 12.8. In those examples, plus is pronounced with a silent s in both cases.

Slow and steady, William, and you can't play the old card with me.

Robert