"By the way, did someone think to turn off the oven?"

Translation: Au fait, quelqu'un a pensé à éteindre le four ?

[DaveGarrar]

Why not: Au fait a quelqu'un pense a eteindre le four?

[LSadun]

Can you use the impersonal on instead of quelqu'un here? Or would that be misunderstood as meaning "we"?

[angus390025]

I also wrote au fait, on a pensé à éteindre le four ?

I don't know whether it is correct but it was not accepted.

[CSA_GW]

"au fait, on a pensé a eteindre le four " is rejected, 2021-08-10

and, when "on' is replaced by "quelqu'un", it is accepted.

[JimCassels]

"Au fait, est ce qu'on a pensé à eteindre le four" not accepted

[Daniel589120]

But "Au fait, est-ce que quelqu'un a pensé à éteindre le four ?" is accepted.

[MatthewB6]

"Au fait, a-t-on pensé à éteindre le four" not accepted.

[effyleven]

"Au fait, quelqu'un a-t-il pensé à éteindre le four?" Also accepted.

[Bekir978479]

DUO IS BEING DIFFICULT AGAIN !

[LlamasintheMist]

I still struggle with these sentences that need an "a" right before them. Did I miss the lesson where they teach this?

[Martyn413385]

Can you explain your query a little more? There is no "a" at the start of either sentence here.

[LlamasintheMist]

There is before the infinitive. With the accent aigue.

[Martyn413385]

OK. you have to look at the group of words together, not individually, ie "pensé à éteindre" translates as "think to/about turning off" where the "à" represents either "to" or "about" depending on your preference in English. Effectively in this context the thinking has to be directed towards something in both languages, and this is achieved in French with "à".

[BoSwicegood]

Penser is always followed by à

[Martyn413385]

Not always, but it always has to have an object. For example, "What do you think?" - "Qu’en penses-tu?" where "en" is the object, in this case "it".

[BoSwicegood]

Of course. I should have been more specific. I was referring to verbs like comprendre and souvenir and the prepositions they take.