French language Q&A Forum

For the french imperative he conjugation is same as the present tense except that for -er verbs, the last -s is dropped in the tu form. ... 

The lesson states:

To express to need + [noun], you will use :avoir besoin de/d' + (article) + noun

The examples cited show the use of the indefinite article but none include the definite article and it could be implied that the definite article is never used after  avoir besoin de/d' which is obviously wrong. It is the old problem of the specific vs the general. Since this is a perrenial problem for French learners, it might be an idea to spell it out more explictly in the lesson.

Tom

Hi,

In a context outside these lessons, I was asked to put the following sentence in la voix passive:

"Le conducteur n'a pas pu arrêter le train à temps."

I thought it would be straightforward and answered as follows:

"Le train n'a pas été pu arrêter à temps par le conducteur."

But this was marked as false, with the correct answer being:

"Le train n'a pas pu être arrêter à temps par le conducteur."

I don't believe the use of la voix passive with modal verbs (pouvoir, devoir, vouloir) was covered explicitly in this lesson, so I wanted to ask if you could please explain these rules, since it seems they might differ from the rules presented here.

thanks, Scott

"I wrote, J'ai passe de bons moments" and it was marked wrong. The correct answer was "J'ai eu de...." All the prompt said to do was to conjugate avoir. I don't think there's anything wrong with my answer. Could you please explain? Once again, I'm checking the box that says "Send email notifications of new answers," and I haven't gotten any responses.