French language Q&A Forum

I was doing the exercise (https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/my-languages/french/exercises/judge/1833/14548249?response=4150265&page=7) to answer a question and now have one of my own:

There's the phrase: visiter les ruines du vieux château.

How come the rule that the definite article is omitted if there's an adjective intervening between de and the noun is not applicable here? I would have thought this should be ...de vieux château.

The rules you give are quite useful. Thank you.

One thing that I would add is that I can remember easier if I think in terms of who is actually entering. If the Subject is entering, then we use être, but if the "entering" is being done by someone/something other than the Subject, then we use avoir.

Mes filles sont entrées en CP cette année. -> Mes filles

Nous avons entré les informations dans le programme. -> les informations

This works in other cases where we need to decide between avoir and être.  (or where the sentence seems to indicate that the action is not done by the sentence subject)

To say in/during the afternoon, we use "dans"? (ex. Il y aura un vent frais dans l'après-midi). To say in/during the morning or evening, we don't use a preposition, correct? (ex. Je vais au marché le matin/ce matin).

Is it "j'ai encore besoin de l'aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire !" Instead of j'ai encore besoin d' aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire!" because it is a specific dictionary that they are talking about?

Is 'pas' missing because this is spoken French? Or is this a case where it isn't needed?

Is it always incorrect to write "vingtième siècle" rather than "XXe siècle" ?

I get caught out by the punctuation in the listening exercises, partly because modern English writing has now dropped so many of the commas that we used to have, and partly because it’s difficult to know from the audio what punctuation is needed. A lesson on this would be useful.

Can you explain why passé composé is used to translate 'I didn't have the time before my trip'? I always make this mistake because I think that the speaker means they didn't have the time for an extended period of time and I often think that imparfait should be used in those cases.

Where has the link to this lesson gone for above mentioned special cases of past participle agreeing with the object when using avoir? I would like to see this lesson,it is not popping up in my feed as the question is only testing Quelles (A2)..

Thanks, Danielle 

Pourquoi le phrase "Il s'en occupe tout de suite" veut dire "He takes care of them right away. (i.e. things)" au lieu de  "He takes care of it right away" dans le test? Si je disais "Je m'occupe de mon problèm," pourrait-on utilise "en" pour remplacer le seul problèm?

I found one of your recent posts awhile back and now I fully understand it. It helped me a lot and now i'm hoping it will help me do better with the tests.

thanks again

Celine