French language Q&A Forum

This is more a comment than a question.  I found this to be a difficult exercise.  For one thing, the vocabulary is not taught in a typical French class.  Words like laptop, headline, online etc are useful to know but not common.  Also, there were so many ways to say the same thing.  Sometimes the answers included alternate responses, sometimes not.  I was taught (and use) "les nouvelles" for the news.  I have never seen "les infos" before this exercise.

1) Could you please explain why 'papier' is pronounced with an 's' as it sounds like 'papSier'.

2) 'avec les mains et les pieds',   To my ear 'pieds' sounds like 'lipsé' ... any help with understanding this pronunciation would be appreciated.

Thank you

Okay, don't laugh, but why would chercher take a direct object pronoun? For example, why is it "il les cherche" and not "il leur cherche".

Merci !

You say that most words ending in -e are feminine, and yet don't give a single example...  Same for masculine....  Wouldn't it make sense to actually list at least a few of the most common words that someone at the A1 level should know? I would be more likely to remember a rule if I'm looking at examples of that rule....  I mean, isn't that the point of examples?  To help clarify and to help it stick in you brain.  You only give examples of words that are the exceptions.  While I understand your point, it seems kind of odd to me. 

Why is d’après being used for after I the sentence d’après le célèbre écrivain…. Instead of après……

Après - After 

D’après- According to

 How does d’après fit here?

Is there only one correct choice for each sitaution or might different speakers view the situation differently and make different choices?

I find that I often get this sort of exercises wrong (for example in the "Un ville magique" test where I got 13/15 on my first attempt) but on looking again at the text and rereading the lessons I cannot convince myself that the alternative choice was better.

For example:

1. "L'endroit qui m'a enchanté au-dessus de tout, c'était le chateau de l'imperatrice Sissi". I had wrongly answered "m'enchantait" since Magalie being enchanted seems to me to be an ongoing state, not having a beginning and end.

2. "Je ne voulait pas plus repartir". I had wrongly answered "n'ai plus voulu" since the state of not wanting to leave would have ended when she actually did leave.