French language Q&A Forum

Pourquoi manque-t-il l’article au nom de Haïti ?

Please explain to me why "que porte le maître en raquettes à neige" means the opposite, should it be "que le maître en raquettes à neige porte"?

As a test question immediately after the lesson it is easy. But most North American and indeed many British Commonwealth countries would consider 'receiving the degree' what happens at the official ceremony. Obtain/earn would be less ambiguous outside the time frame of lesson/test. Should it be changed  form receiver to 'obtain or earn'?

Can you give some examples with avoir besoin?

Can you use 'c'est chaud/c'est moche' etc to talk about the conditions that the weather has created? For example, at the hight of summer it's not uncommon to hear 'c'est chaud' as one enters someone's home. 

Why not "était" instead of "a été" ? 

Oui, je sais, c’est vraiment bête, why not c'était vraiment bête,

Le pauvre Tom n’arrêtait pas de dire pardon,  Tom was'nt stopping saying pardon,  instead of why not use ? Le pauvre Tom n'a pas arrêté de dire pardon, Tom did stop saying pardon,

Tom did not stop saying pardon, or Tom ne arréterait pas de dire pardon, Tom would not stop saying pardon.

I find these tenses very confusing,

1-  I am unsure of when to use "personnes" and when to use "gens."  I had, "Disons une trentaine de gens."

2-  Why is it "Ma mère adore le fruit de la passion et l'ananas"  with the definite article but "...mais les enfants préféreraient du chocolat"  ?

I thought this was a general opinion and therefore chose the definite article "le" for "chocolat," as well.

Can you tell me why it's "avoir à passer du temps" rather than "avoir passer du temps"?  From the lessons I would think the version without "à" would express "having to spend".

Also, in the last phrase it is difficult to understand whether  they wanted a phrase to describe that he would become  a person who translates any language instantly or he would instantly become a universal translator. Are those two things written differently?

How would you translate the sentence, "Wine, we don't drink much of it." I wasn't sure about "Le vin, ..." so I asked Google Translate, which said it should be "Du vin, ..." But Duolingo marked that wrong and said it should be, "Le vin, ..." Which is correct? "Du vin, ..." actually feels more correct to me, because what you're really saying is, "On the subject of wine, we..." And wouldn't that be, "Au sujet du vin, nous ..." ? (Sorry, I don't know how to classify this type of sentence.)