French language Q&A Forum

Why can't we use "vraiment" here for "really"? and why does it contract to "de" ? I know its because of the quantity of "beaucoup" however the expression is "avoir du mal à"?

Why is there a "DE" here? Is the expression "fait de qch"?

I'm learning a piece of music by the composer Georges Hüe.  How is this last name pronounced?  From the description I saw on https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/dieresis/ I am guessing that the "H" is silent, the "ü" is pronounced as a standard "u," and the "e" is voiced instead of silent.  Is that correct?  (If someone knows IPA, then perhaps that would be a good way to answer?)

This explanation doesn't explain why sometimes one says 'L'hiver' and at other times, 'En hiver', and similar for other seasons.  The examples given do not enlighten me much.  I have always had trouble with this.  At first I thought, oh, you use 'l'hiver' when you are going to say something describing a feature of 'hiver', and 'En hiver' when you want to say something happened during 'hiver', but then the other examples given in context of other seasons etc mostly described activities occurring during the season regardless of the 'en' or 'l'' beginning.

I need it stated explicitly what the rule is, there doesn't appear to be one.

I am aware that this has been discussed before but it is clear to me that in certain cases “passer une année” can be used.

For example, on the web page https://acupoffrench.com/french-grammar/an-vs-annee-2/, which also explains when to use “an” or “année”, there is the following example with passer and année used to stress the duration:

“Elle a passé quatre années à chercher un travail.”

So I think it would not hurt to explicitly mention this possibility to use année instead of an to stress the duration. 

For the general case (not just related to passer), I think the rule from “Advanced French Grammar”/Monique L’Huillier section 5.2.1 an/année is clearer than the “time unit” vs “duration” distinction: “an usually follows cardinal numbers, whilst année follows ordinal numbers, or an indefinite or demonstrative adjective”.

This rule does not hold for jour/journée, soir/soirée and matin/matinée and these cases  are treated separately in the book.

This rule is then followed up in the book with “If the year is modified in any way, “année” should be used” with the following examples.

“J’ai vécu à Londres pendant cinq ans.”

”J’ai gardé un très bon souvenir de mes cinq années à Londres.”

How do you say “Not only…”?

1. My dictionary suggested "roman d'amour" for romance novel, but the accepted answers only included "roman à l'eau de rose," "roman sentimental," etc. Is there a difference?

2. I used "réussite" instead of "succès" just because it seemed to be repeated too often, but it seems like it wasn't an accepted answers some of the time; is there a difference between the two?

The examples use avoir but the text says use etre - I am confused 

I don’t think the "grand" in the final sentence sounded quite right, more like gros. It was fine in the recording of the whole extract but not in the individual exercise. Or is it my ears?! (Une nouvelle que nous avions accueillie avec grand soulagement !)