French language Q&A Forum

I don't have the best ears, but I do not hear beaucoup after t-shirt.  I hear "au contre" instead.

Could the following phrase given above:

Merci à Léa et Julie, sans l'aide desquelles rien n'aurait été possible

also be phrased as:

Merci à Léa et Julie, sans desquelles rien n'aurait pu etre possible

Je manque toujours les point d'exclamation.  Il y a un règlement sur le sujet? Comment peut-on savoir pendant la dictée, si un point d'exclamation est nécessaire? On peut entendre un ton dans la voix?

What is the rule for capitalisation here? The Cirque in the first line is capitalised but in the last line is marked incorrect when capitalised.

Can you explain the difference?  When I looked up branch (of a river), my dictionary gave branchement.  This was not accepted in the context of this story. 

Speaking to friends, would it not be correct to say: 'Dépêche-toi', rather than 'Dépêchez-vous'?

Now, l just have to read Les Fleurs du Mal. So inspiring. The bohemian in me recognizes that in Baudelaire. 

As we encounter these amazing writers, it strikes me that it would be useful to learn the use of the passé simple and the passé antérieur and possibly other now more literary tenses in the subjonctif.  I realize that most people don't speak that way anymore. Yet l wonder, if l were to read Baudelaire, might l  not encounter those tenses? 

Another current example: l listen to France Inter. They recently aired a fabulous 8 part podcast on Simone de Beauvoir. So l am now reading Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, which is liberally sprinkled with the Passé simple and Passé antérieur. So no sweat, l figure it out; the vocabulary she uses is actually more challenging than her tenses. So here is a woman writing in 1958 who is very current today in fact, when it comes to feminism, she is still central source material. Thanks for considering this suggestion.

PS: The funniest thing! After first writing this l  took a study plan test in which 4 out of 10 questions required the passé simple! So my information that you do not teach such tenses is clearly wrong ... or out-dated. Please feel free to not respond to my suggestion if my basic assumptions are wrong 😀

Alexandre is a proper noun, so shortening it to "qu'Alexandre" is optional and not necessary. Yet I got marked wrong for writing "n'a embrassé que Alexandre"

"Pronunciation Note: 

Does that mean that the final -s is always pronounced if the meaning is positive? Is that how French people distinguish between 1) J'ai plus du temps and 2) J'ai plus de temps (where 2 is really Je n'ai plus de temps with the ne omitted as it often is in conversation). How do native French listeners tell the difference?

"Il avait même fallu que les autorités démentissent le canular". According to a conjugation guide I use, this sentence appears to use "démentir" in the subjunctif imparfait, which I think is rarely used today in French. Would it be better as "que les autorités démentent" (present subjunctive)? Or maybe "aient démenti" if a subjunctive in the past tense is needed here?