French language Q&A Forum

My Barron's French Verbs defines s'amuser as:  to have a good time, to amuse oneself, to enjoy oneself.  Although I know  "Amélie s'amuser au cirque" implies she is having fun, you gave as a possible answer also "is amusing herself".  Since you guys a normally very exact in what you allow as correct in your tests, why do you now not accept a technically more correct answer?

Bonsoir à tous,

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Mais après seulement quelques semaines, elle a commencé à s'épanouir : elle ne cachait plus sa bouche quand elle souriait, et on pouvait maintenant entendre sa voix clairement quand elle parlait, ce qui arrivait plus souvent qu'avant.

Can arriver and se passer be used interchangeably here? i.e. "ce qui se passait plus souvent qu'avant."

'se passait' wasn't given as an alternative option in the available correct answers.

Nick

My best friend Pierre, who until last year shared a 2-bedroom apartment with me in Paris,

Mon meilleur ami Pierre, qui jusqu'à l'année dernièrer partageait un appartement de deux chambrtrois-pièces avec moi à Paris

Why can't I use l'annee derniere here?? the grammar doesn't explain! 

Thanks guys... can't do accents on this page

In the C1 writing challenge "A Ghost Story" the partial sentence "While I was pulling weeds" in the context "While I was pulling weeds ... I heard..." was translated "Tandis que j'arrachais les mauvaises herbes". "Alors que" was also suggested but my answer "Pendant que" was not. Why is that?

Larousse (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais/while/624050) translates "while" as "pendant que" when it refers to a simultaneity of time (e.g. pendant que vous serez à Londres il faut visiter le British Museum), whereas "tandis que" and "alors que" it says are applicable to the case where "while" is used in the sense of "whereas" (e.g. elle est de gauche tandis qu'il est conservateur).