French language Q&A Forum

For "these old objects" I tried "ces objets anciens" and was corrected to "ces anciens objets". Is ancien going before the noun here because there is some sense of former-ness (the objects aren't what they used to be), even though they are still objects?

… isn’t it?

Avoir besoin de. Avoir envie de. Devoir. I try guessing by picking one or two or three depending on the activity and invariably get it wrong. I think your explanatory text needs more clarification, especially in the use of avoir envie de as an option for ‘need to’. Thank you for your time.

Could you please explain why the sentence « Alors, reste avec nous et sois notre soeur. »* appears to be using the subjunctive form of être if there is no "que" before it. It makes sense that "stay with us"  is in the imperative and "be our sister" is subjunctive in that it is a desire/hope/want. Is this just a special case or have I misunderstood the grammar?

*Quote from a traditional fairytale.

You and them are going to have fun!

as a lifelong English speaker (and teacher) this sounds odd, well ungrammatical actually. Surely we would say, or at leadt write:

You and them, you are going to have fun!

as in French.

As per this lesson, would it be wrong to use the passé composé in ALL positive sentences with DEPUIS?? 

For example - "Vous avez grossi depuis l'année dernière."? Is it incorrect? [You have gained weight since last year]. Is it a must to use present tense ONLY over here?

So, "Vous grossissez depuis l'année dernière." - (Present Tense) [You have been gaining weight since last year] 

The recommended translation of 'It [the year] started with the biggest heartache of my life' is 'Elle a commencé avec la plus grosse peine de cœur de ma vie'.

Is there a reason why 'avec' is preferred over 'par' in this sentence?

How do you know 'lui' in the instance below is a woman?

Il n'avait jamais pu lui avouer la vérité?

Can we say par avion as well as en avion?

Bonjour à toutes et à tous,

Few Qs on this exercise:

1. I'm not entirely sure why the phrase below is in the subjonctif passé - can someone please explain? I had used the subjonctif présent.

Bien que mon père et moi ayons passé du temps à sécuriser les volets cet après-midi-là

2. Given we've just mentioned the night in question, can one not use 'elle' rather than 'ça' in the phrase below?

Quand je pense à cette nuit-là, ça me fait toujours frissonner !

3. What is the difference between rameaux et branches? I had used the former.

Merci!

Nick