French language Q&A Forum

Pourquoi pas : commencé à bavader ou causer?

Can you please explain why we us de le together.  I have always been told you must never use de le together. You can use du, de l' or de la.  This is a first for me.

In the next to last sentence would it be more polite to ask "Je vous devrais combien?" instead of "je vous dois...."

I don't think the problem is my computer but many of the sections here would not play sound

"Là, une multitude d'étals de poissons fraîchement pêchés aiguisaient l'appétit des passants"

I don't understand the plural here: Isn't it "Une multitude d'étals" - multitude being singular - which is the subject of the verb - rather than "D'étals" themselves, which would be plural.

I'm trying to devine whether there is some rule at work here here, or whether it's pretty much optional.

Hello,

Is there is a reason why some words require a 'consolidated' partitive with the definite article (du / de la) and some only require the 'unconsolidated' partitive (de)? Such as "je bois du vin' vs. nous buvons 2 litres d'eau par jour'?

I am trying to come up with a little rule to make things easier to learn / remember, but it doesn't seem that it works like that.

Thanks,

Alex

The text says "Note that in each case where être is the auxilliary, the verb passer is followed by a preposition (en, sur, dans, à etc.).  "

But then we have the example "Elle est passée chez Laurent hier"

Surely "chez laurent" is a noun?

Why does the text switch from imparfait to passé composé here:

Nous étions vraiment désolés. Nous nous sommes excusés

I wrote "Oui, on a papoté pendant une heure." instead of "Oui, on a discuté/bavardé pendant une heure." It marked it as incorrect. I think bavardé is closer than discuté for 'chatted', but I feel like 'papoté' suits well for the context. Am I wrong?