arriver de / arriver à
- Thread starter sudest
- Start date
there are two uses of arriver (in fact there are more) :
"J'arrive à faire quelque chose" : I can do smthI manage to do something
"Arriver" in the sense that something happens :
"Il m'arrive d'y penser" : litterally "It happens that I think about it" ("I do think about it sometimes").
The "il" in french is an indefinite nounlike in "il pleut" (it rains).
So :
Quelqu'un arrive à faire quelque chose : Someone manages to/can do something
Il arrive à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose : Sometimessomeone does something
"J'arrive à faire quelque chose" : I can do smthI manage to do something
"Arriver" in the sense that something happens :
"Il m'arrive d'y penser" : litterally "It happens that I think about it" ("I do think about it sometimes").
The "il" in french is an indefinite nounlike in "il pleut" (it rains).
So :
Quelqu'un arrive à faire quelque chose : Someone manages to/can do something
Il arrive à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose : Sometimessomeone does something
Do you ever think about it?
I can occasionally be late / I have been known to be late / I have been late on occasion...
I hope this helps.
Alpheratz
Senior Member
French
arriver + de = to happen
ie : Il lui arrive de la voir = He does happen to see her.
ie : ça m'arrive de l'oublier = Sometimes I forget it.
arriver + à = to manage to
ie : Je n'arrive pas à faire ce devoir = I can't do this exercise
ie : J'ai réussi à arrêter de fumer = I managed to stop smoking
ie : Il lui arrive de la voir = He does happen to see her.
ie : ça m'arrive de l'oublier = Sometimes I forget it.
arriver + à = to manage to
ie : Je n'arrive pas à faire ce devoir = I can't do this exercise
ie : J'ai réussi à arrêter de fumer = I managed to stop smoking
Alpheratz
Senior Member
French
Nothis sentence "il arrive à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose" has no link with the idea of success. It just means "sometimesthis person does something".
Ie : "Il vous arrive de sourire ?" . It means : "Do you smilesometimes ?"
Ie : "Il vous arrive de sourire ?" . It means : "Do you smilesometimes ?"
rkazukiewicz
New Member
English - United States
Would one also be able to use arriver de to say that someone arrived from somewhere.
Ex:
"We arrived from Great Britain this morning"
"We arrived from the great barrier reef"
Ex:
"We arrived from Great Britain this morning"
"We arrived from the great barrier reef"
admiralnlson
Member
French - Metropolitan
@rhazukiewicz yes.
On arrive tout juste de Grande Bretagne. (We've just arrived from Great Britain)
On est arrivés de Grande Bretagne ce matin. (We arrived from Great Britain this morning)
Je suis arrivé à la Grande Barrière de corail dans la soirée. (I arrived at the great barrier reef in the evening)
On arrive tout juste de Grande Bretagne. (We've just arrived from Great Britain)
On est arrivés de Grande Bretagne ce matin. (We arrived from Great Britain this morning)
Je suis arrivé à la Grande Barrière de corail dans la soirée. (I arrived at the great barrier reef in the evening)
rkazukiewicz
New Member
English - United States
Pour dire "we've just arrived from Great Britain" peut-on aussi dire "je viens de venir de Grande Bretagne" ça a beacoup de mots je suppose
admiralnlson
Member
French - Metropolitan
No you couldn't.
Although grammatically OKit would be clumsy to use "venir" twice in such short sequence.
And this would also be true for "venir d'arriver" actually. The 2 verbs (first one being used as an auxillary verb here) don't have the exact same meaningbut it's still very close and make it clumsy as well.
More importantly though"venir de" = "come from" and "Je viens de GB" would usually mean it is your country of origin/birth.
If you live in France for the most partbut went to GB for the holidays and just have arrived back to Franceyou could however say:
Je reviens de Grande Bretagne. On est allés voir la belle-famille.
= I just arrived back from GB. We went to see the in-laws.
Bonjour... Je sais qu'on peut dire "je n'arrive pas à nettoyer ma chambre souvent. "I can't seem to (manage to) clean my room often" maispeut-on utiliser "arriver à faire quelque chose" au passé ou c'est mieux d'utiliser pouvoir? ex. On peut dire (?) Je ne suis pas arrivée à nettoyer ma chambre ce matin? ou...je ne pouvais pas nettoyer ma chambre ce matin.
merci!
merci!
Locape
Senior Member
French
Welcome to WR@bsbrodie! 
Dans ce contexteje dirais 'Je n'ai pas pu nettoyer ma chambre ce matin' ou en effet 'Je ne pouvais pas la nettoyer'qqch ou qqn m'en a empêché (I couldn't clean my room this morning). Mais on peut dire aussi 'Je ne suis pas arrivée à nettoyer ma chambre ce matin'je n'avais pas le temps ou j'étais trop fatiguée (I didn't manage to clean my room).
Dans ce contexteje dirais 'Je n'ai pas pu nettoyer ma chambre ce matin' ou en effet 'Je ne pouvais pas la nettoyer'qqch ou qqn m'en a empêché (I couldn't clean my room this morning). Mais on peut dire aussi 'Je ne suis pas arrivée à nettoyer ma chambre ce matin'je n'avais pas le temps ou j'étais trop fatiguée (I didn't manage to clean my room).