French language Q&A Forum

How do we know when to use the verb “avoir” or when we have to use the verb “être”? Or is that something we just need to memorize?

The speech on this recording is very unclear. I really struggled to make out the words, even after listening to each phrase multiple times.

Lis-tu des romans de temps en temps ?

I don't know if this was just a glitch, but during the exercise in the acceptable answers for "I made my pumpkin pie", the option audio says "J'ai fait ma tarte à la citrouille" but the option text says "J'ai fait ma tarte à citrouille". The text at the end of the exercise under "Here's the full text for you to read and listen to:" is correct.

Unlike some comment leavers on this page, I *adore* the passé simple and I find it extremely useful.

That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I enjoy reading French history and literature. (For example, Les Trois mousquetaires is an amazing romp !  Much better in the original French than in any English translation that I've seen.)

I would be hopelessly confused in my reading without a solid understanding of the passé simple (to say nothing of the passé antérieur and *all* the tenses of the subjonctif) !

Different people learn French for different purposes. All the purposes are legitimate, in my view. It's a pretty big website, and I support the principle that the lessons should cover as much of la langue française as possible.

That said, I would be grateful to have more coverage of informal French. When I watch movies, I often find myself at a loss to understand what is being said by one character to another, even though I have a pretty good command of C1-level formal French. Maybe mine is a minority interest, but I just want to mention it.

In any case:

Great site! Many thanks!

I don't understand "nous a le plus marqués"  Maybe it should be "nous avons le plus marqués" ?

My translate app keeps correcting un évènement to un événement. I used the latter in this exercise and the result was that my answer matched, when it did not. Please explain which is correct. Thank you.

HI everyone,

So to my understanding reading the previous answers to the questions unambiguously would mean both am and pm? 

Also I know the two different ways to say the numbers in both 12 hour and 24hour but,  and as I'm reading the responses it seems that past 6pm you would use like deux treize quatroze etc. Would I be correct and if it's past midnight would it be the same?

Thanks

Nicole

I think since 1990 and the contentious spelling reforms, there are now two acceptable ways to spell “onion” in French. I think the Academy even prefers “ognon” to be used over “oignon”. In the same way that you now allow “s’il vous plait” without the circumflex as well as “s’il vous plaît”, maybe you should add the new spelling of onion as an acceptable option?