French language Q&A Forum

Citrouille and Potiron both means pumkin in english. 

Is there any difference in its usage? One is more formal?

In one of the writing challenges, the sentence "As soon as we passed the door," is translated into French as:

Aussitôt que nous avons passé la porte, 

In reviewing the grammar topic "Passer can be used with avoir or être in Le Passé Composé... and changes meaning," however, I'm having trouble understanding the usage here. The grammar page says that "passer" is used with être for: 

 pass by <somewhere>, go past <something/somewhere>, stop by <somewhere>, pop by <somewhere>

In this case, it seems the sentence is "passing by (somewhere)" or "going past (somewhere)"

For avoir, the examples are = spend <some time>, take <a test or exam> , and pass <something> (to someone), none of which seem to match this sentence.

Can someone please explain why using "avoir" instead of "être" is considered correct in this case?

Thank you!

Quelle est la réponse de Bonne soirée??

I have not seen this one addressed elsewhere, so I will post it and see if there is any advice. In all the exercises so far, "près de" is used. I am in Quebec and have been using "proche de", which seems to be commonly used.

So - the question: is there some subtle differences in the use of "près" or "proche" which I should learn?

For example, I am in front of the school could be: Je suis en face de l'ecole or Je suis devant l'ecole? 

Merci!