French language Q&A Forum

What do the preposition à and de Mean Un the Following sentences ?

Je parle à mon copain

I do not understand why "Sams does Aikido" is translated as "Sam fait de l'aïkido.".  The lesson says that in front of masculine nouns that de le and les will contract to du and des.  Why is this not "Sam fait du aïkido"?  

Thank you.

In "it is going to cook the yolk" the verb has an object so it used transitively. Shouldn't the French be "faire cuire" rather than just "cuire"?

In the sentence - J'achète toujours une nouvelle chemise..... the shirt is 'brand new' hence should be - J'achète toujours une chemise neuve?

When do I use "ne...que" and when do I use "ne...plus que"?

10. Cette infirmière attend un garçon is not reflexive.  Why in one answer This nurse is expecting a boy.

Bonjour! Un exemple dans cette leçon indique:

>Exemple: Le joli garçon est avec la jolie fille.

Pourquoi c'est "la jolie fille" et pas "la fille jolie"?

[I wrote this in French as practice; but I thought that adjectives follow nouns in French? Is there a lesson going over how to order adjectives?

In addition, I'd love any feedback on the presentation/construction of my question! Writing longer sentences in French is hard.]

I'm inferring from the context that "clou" here means something like "highlight" or perhaps "grand finale", but I was unable to anything like this sense in the reference materials that I have on hand. "The nail of this stay" doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so I figure it has to mean something else.

Help in sorting this out will be appreciated.