French language Q&A Forum

I found one lesson in “Lawless French” that used blanc and banc as an example of “c” being silent due to the “an” being a nasal vowel. Other individual exceptions were stomach, porc and tabac.  So as a rule is the “c” silent when it follows a nasal vowel? Is there any other rule that I can use to cull the list of words that need to be memorized?

This was listed as a writing exercise.  I don’t really mind but it was a surprise.

in america, there is no such thing as "i will lay the table" that literally means you are making or forcing the table to lay down. but you would not do that to an object, nor would you phrase it that way because a table cannot lay down, it stands and does nothing else. i am finding a lot of phrases that are difficult to translate because of this. i have also sought help with french speaking friends who have helped me and when i provide the answer, the platform says i am wrong and reverses the answer. such as the case with adjectives position before or after. 

my goal is conversational french. I'm happy to know that passe simple exists, but I dont want to spend time on it. Is it possible to ignore it ?

I came across ‘je ne pense pas qu’ils auraient reussi à s’arracher à lui s’il était revenu.’  (Harry Potter translation).  Although penser when negated takes the subjunctive is the subjunctive not used when a conditional tense is needed? I guess I’m not sure whether tenses change the use of the subjunctive. I read the future changes to the present to us the subjunctive. 

For me, the hint for "le robinet" showed up the slide after that part of the conversation.

Is it correct to use 'rentrer' instead of 'retourner' in the last but one sentence?

The sentence, "Pourtant, elle le méritait vraiment", refers to something in the previous sentence, which is "Surya n’a jamais gagné de médaille d'or aux Jeux Olympiques, ce qui est vraiment dommage."  The 'le' is used instead of 'la' because it refers to gaining the gold medal, a masculine reference, as opposed to "la médaille d'or", a feminine reference.  Is that the correct interpretation as to why 'le' is used ?

this is frustrating. where does it say "jour" as in day? how are we supposed to know its St Julien Day and not a destination called St Julien?

This was one of the questions that I encountered here.

Sentence:

I gave my old computer to an association.'' ?(HINT: here old as "that I used to own")

It turns out the correct translation is: J'ai donné mon ancien ordinateur...

Why is that?

I think it should be - J'ai donné mon ordinateur ancien...

Since, the adjective after the noun means = old

Can someone explain this to me ?