French language Q&A Forum

Is the underlying phrase here "faire de [qch] la référence en la matière"? What does it mean exactly, and is it common?

How come there is elision for "Je suis australien" but no elision for "Je suis australienne"?

Hello, can you explain more of the difference between "revenir" and "retourner"? I was using "Je revenais à Toulouse" and "Je retournais avec une valise" but it appears to be the opposite. Thank you. 

I assume that the avoir aspect of the sentence also changes with tense for example: 

Imparfaite =J'avais besoin de= I have needed 

Future= J'aurai besoin de= I will need 

Passe compose= J'ai eu besoin de= I needed 

Plus-que-Parfaite= J'avais eu besoin de= I have had needed

etc. 

Is this correct? 

Why is fut used in the above, rather than était.To the best of my knowledge, we have not been introduced to the Historic?

Bonjour Kwiziq Team,

I completed a question on your website: Aurélie ________ avec sa soeur.

I was trying to decide if it should be "s'est disputée" or "s'est disputé". I thought it would've been the former, since Aurélie is a girl. But I remembered stumbling upon an article about Le cas de non-accord which said:

Le participe passé ne s'accorde pas lorsque le C.O.D. suit le verbe.
Exemples :
- Ils se sont lavé les mains. (COD "les mains" placé après le verbe)
- Ils se sont écrit des lettres. (COD "des lettres" placé après le verbe)
- Ils se sont réparti tous les billets. (COD "tous les billets" placé après le verbe)

Hence, I selected "s'est disputé"" which turned out to be the wrong answer. Can someone explain why? Is it because "sa soeur" is not a C.O.D. and if so, why not?

Thanks very much for all you do!