French language Q&A Forum

There is a glitch in the writing and dictation exercises -- when you finish typing and hit enter (or whatever), it moves directly to the next portion to read/listen to without giving the option to grade it. It's frustrating.

Why is it "les" (sushi in general) instead of "de" (not any)?  Same question later on in reverse - why is it "si vous avez de la Tiger" (some Tiger) and not "la Tiger" (Tiger beer in general)? Somehow I can understand how to use the subjunctive, but cannot master the French articles and prepositions which seem to pose the biggest challenge. 

These answers are bedevilled by poor English translations. Certain, in English, means either a particular one, or that one is sure of something. There is nothing vague about it, but your definition of 'certain' in the pre-noun position you say implies a vagueness, and yet the answer to the question is keith likes a certain (particular) man - unless you mean he likes all men who are sure about things? If you could avoid using the word 'certain' in your english translations that might be helpful.

In the translation of ” and I'm skint [US: broke] because of all the gifts that I must buy”, they use the expression ”à cause de” for because of.  I was wondering if "en raison de" could be substituted for "à cause de".  I tried it but it wasn't accepted.  Is there a subtle difference that I don't understand?