French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour Madame,

In the sentence from the lesson "Il jouait au football quand il était petit." Should the translation not be as-

"He used to play football when he was young."(in place of played)

Please explain the reason.

Merci d'avance 

This sentence was an example:  Tu as failli y rester.   The translation was you almost died.

Couldn't it also be Tu as failli mourir?

I'm also looking forward to an answer to Ted's question below. In addition, the lesson contains the heading 

  If in Exer the x stands for any other letter, that would include eler and eter, so why does the heading expressly state them?

why do we not say:- 

L'année prochaine, il commencera à l'université

How can “I cycle to work” become “I am going to work” (near future) by bike.   That would be if he is a courrier.  Shouldn’t it be « je vais au travaille » ?   And I thought that by bike would be à vélo.  

The reflexive form is commonly used in English as "I will pass on it."  So your examples:

I am perplexed with this particular example (repeatedly get it wrong on the tests). I believe I understand the concept, but in this instance could you explain why spelling of "ecrite"? Wouldn't the last "e" also have an accent aigu? For example (from the same lesson): J'ai rencontré les actrices que j'ai appréciées. Some examples have it, others do not. Though I've reviewed the lesson repeatedly, obviously something is going over my head!

Thank you. 

Valerie

Are these negativ forms correct and common?

Tu ne t'es pas levé à 5 heures?

Laurent ne s'est-il pas couché à onze heures ?

Paul ne se brosse-t-il pas les dents?

Thank you!