French language Q&A Forum

I find that in many of the lessons, the synonyms are often not taken as an alternative. For example "des fois" was not taken as correct for "sometimes". Another example, "cueillir" was marked wrong for "picking", and an alternative "ramasser" was suggested as a correct answer. I'd suggest to expand the choices of synonyms. 

Is it because fatiquer is transitive ‘only’ and ‘must’ have an object, otherwise fatiguée here is an adjective?      Might be back to A level for me!

Quand j'étais en vacances au bord de la mer, j'ai eu l'opportunité d'aller faire de l'équitation sur la plage. J'avais toujours eu envie de le faire...

I'd like some help understanding why plus-que-parfait is used in the second sentence.  Is it because the desire to ride horseback on the beach is before the also past action of having had the opportunity to do so?  I think the English translation was "I had always wanted to do it" and my brain wasn't able to place this as a past feeling-before-a-past action!  So tricky...

I'm wondering why the verb tense here doesn't match the English sentence that was given : "We **had wanted** you so much for so long... ".

BUT in the lesson it states:-

In the following cases, you cannot use sur (on) in French, but you will instead use dans (in). Street Ils marchent dans la rue.

In the case of the street, we see the whole environment as 'the street' and you're situated in it.

It seems that avenue is treated differently to street, is there a reason for this?

 je dois dire que les chats de Cécile sont exceptionnellement beaux.  

For the line “Chaque seconde, un hectare de forêt vierge mondiale est détruit” one lesson listed is passive voice. Is this really passive voice, or is “détruit” just an adjective in this case? I would be able to see more clearly the passive voice nature of, for example, “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed by foresters” or even “Every second, one hectare of forest was destroyed” (with an implied subject enacting the verb). However, I’m not getting the passive voice in the original line, perhaps because “is” rather than “was” is being used. Explanation welcome, as I do struggle with passive voice topics.

Passive voice

The lesson gives two answers, one with "aussi" and "plein d' ", and one with "également" and "beaucoup".  The final text uses "aussi" and "beaucoup": "Je mange aussi beaucoup d'abricots." 

So, is it ok to match aussi/également with plein d'/beaucoup and vice versa?