French language Q&A Forum

Just not sure how this switches/changes from a question to a statement.

How do you say the following in French? 

a) I spent a day with Martin. 

b) I spent the day with Martin.

My guess is:

a) J’ai passé un jour avec Martin. (following the example of "spent a year" indirectly)

b) J’ai passé la journée avec Martin. (following the quiz answer directly)

Am I correct? If so, why are the two different? Can I just remember "a" vs. "the" means one is a unit of time and one is emphasizing the duration? Thank you. 

What is the purpose of the 'bien' in this sentence?

Wouldn't the meaning be exactly the same if it was omitted?

Bonjour Cécile. A few weeks ago I said I’d find an example of a run on sentence. In this lesson, I had one: Je ne peux pas parler maintenant, je suis en train de travailler. In English, we’d separate the two independent clauses with a semi-colon or a period, not a comma. I’m asking if it’s standard in French to use a comma to separate two clauses? Merci pour votre réponse !