French language Q&A Forum

I answered incorrectly "au haricot vert", and was wondering if the difference is audible? Though perhaps this is something to know context rather than hear.

Chers amis, 

Please clarify my doubt.  Mon école est à côté des appartements    or    Mon école est à côté d'appartements

Which one is right?   does de gets contracted to des or changes to d' as appartements starts with a vowel. 

Thanks in advance. 

I found that the sound quality on this recording was really terrible, there's an echo that made it really difficult to make out what the speaker was saying, so I abandoned it.

Hello! I'm confused about the sentence: "Pour que tous les habitants comprennent, le roi François Ier décide en 1539 .... " If the English translation takes place in the past tense (the king François decided), why does the phrase seem to be conjugated in the present tense? Why not "le roi François Ier a décidé?" Merci!

Could anybody help me with the form of the word: 'cochant'?

I have learned third person plural conjugation is cochent, but this word 'cochant' I couldn't find in a dictionary. 

As you know, cocher is infinitive form of verb but what about cochant? Please!

The original context: "Répondez aux questions en cochant la ou less bonne response."

Please help me!

Can someone at least point me to a detailed explanation of when to use Tu. I am 74 and I have assumed nobody will tutoyer me automatically. I would prefer not to tutoyer someone else merely for some hierarchical reason, so I am focusing on the vous form (as does Pimsleur, which I am also using). But, if I go to a French Meet Up in America, will everyone be using Tu? And what about visiting Guadeloupe?

Which is correct. Il fait beau or il y a du soleil?

I thought and had the same meaning and are both passive voice constructions. This comes up in a question asking for an active voice sentence to be turned into a passive. I used which sounds better to me than . So, are reflexive constructions passive voice or not? I was taught, like 50 years ago, that they were. C'est un peu tatillon, mais j'ai envie de savoir.

Am I the only one who can't stop hearing a distinct v sound as in "Tu vas une idée, toi ?" ? I knew it didn't make sense to use aller in this context but I still can't help hearing the guy say 'vas'.