French Idiomatic Expressions With Matin and Matinée

French Idiomatic Expressions With Matin and Matinà ©e The French words matin  and  matinà ©e  both mean morning and both are used in many idiomatic expressions. The  difference between the two is that  un matin  is a straightforward expression of time (the morning), while  une  matinà ©e  indicates a duration of time, usually stressing the length of time, as in the whole morning long.  Learn how to say dawn, repeatedly, sleep late  and more with these idiomatic expressions using matin  and  matinà ©e. This is a general principle that applies as well to other confusing pairs of words, such as  an  and  annà ©e,  jour  and  journà ©e,  and  soir  and  soirà ©e.  Note that the shorter words in each case representing a straightforward period of time are all masculine; the longer words indicating a stretch of time are all feminine. In the list below, note that while  de bon matin  is an acceptable expression, bon matin is not. Non-native speakers of French sometimes make the mistake of using bon matin to mean good morning, but this construction does not exist in French. The acceptable morning greeting is always simply  bonjour. Common French Expressions With Matin and  Matinà ©e   prendre matin, midi et soir to be taken three times a day Araignà ©e du matin, chagrin; araignà ©e du soir, espoir. (proverb) A spider in the morning, sadness (or,  bad luck); a spider at night, hope ( or, good luck) au matin de sa vie at the beginning / in the first years of ones life (when everything seems possible) au petit matin at dawn de bon matin early in the morning de grand matin early in the morning du matin au soir from morning till night à ªtre du matin to be an early riser tous les quatre matins repeatedly, again and again un de ces quatre matins one of these days une matinà ©e afternoon performance une matinà ©e dansante dance, informal afternoon dance party dans la matinà ©e (sometime) in the morning fair la grasse matinà ©e sleep late, sleep in

3 Cases of Misuse of Dashes

3 Cases of Misuse of Dashes 3 Cases of Misuse of Dashes 3 Cases of Misuse of Dashes By Mark Nichol In each of the following sentences, dashes are erroneously employed, resulted in confused sentences. Discussion following each example explains the problem, and one or more revisions illustrate solutions. 1. When driving long distances- know that children get restless. A dash is not applicable when one clause naturally follows another. â€Å"Know that children get restless† does not abruptly break from the subordinate clause that precedes it, so a comma suffices here: â€Å"When driving long distances, know that children get restless.† 2. Few banks can afford their customer experiences to plateau for long before customers with ever-increasing expectations choose to do business with a competitor- or worse- with a disruptive market entrant. â€Å"Or worse† is treated here as a parenthetical phrase but is not intended as one. Because what follows the first dash signals a syntactical break, only that first dash is called for. In addition, because worse, on its own, is parenthetical to the phrase â€Å"or with a disruptive market tenant,† it should be bracketed by punctuation, but two mere commas suffice (and a pair of dashes would confuse in proximity to the preceding one): â€Å"Few banks can afford their customer experiences to plateau for long before customers with ever-increasing expectations choose to do business with a competitor- or, worse, with a disruptive market entrant.† 3. Some features predicted in this article- like seat belts- became ubiquitous, while others- like braking distance indicated on speedometers- never caught on. As mentioned in the discussion for the previous example, employing one or two dashes more than once in a given sentence can be confusing, as readers see several phrases separated by the dashes with no indication of syntactical hierarchy, so avoid doing so: â€Å"Some features predicted in this article, like seat belts, became ubiquitous, while others, like braking distance indicated on speedometers, never caught on.† If two complementary phrases, such as those specifying examples in the original sentence, are going to be used parenthetically, the pairs of punctuation marks must be identical to indicate their equivalence. However, in this case, because a comma already exists in the sentence, the sentence organization is still muddled (and the statement is crowded with commas), so it is more helpful to the reader to frame the two examples in parentheses: â€Å"Some features predicted in this article (like seat belts) became ubiquitous, while others (like braking distance indicated on speedometers) never caught on.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Religious Terms You Should KnowRunning Amok or Running Amuck?Shore It Up