French language Q&A Forum

This is under the ‘sound different’ section, but (to me) they sound the same. 

Paul should have left earlier is given as 'Paul aurait du partir plus tot'.

I could have learnt to swim is given as 'J'aurais pu apprendre a nager'

These are exactly the same constructions, therefore they can not both be correct.

(Apologies for the absence of diacritic marks)

In the explannation above, it says:

"To express lacking [something], you will use manquer de or d' + [thing].

You do not need to use the partitive articles (du, de l', de la, des) here, just as you wouldn't say I lack thesugar but simply I lack sugar:"

It's a bit confusing because then all the examples use "de". You really have to your know your grammatical terms! I wonder if it would be clearer to say:

"You do not need to use the definite articles (le, l', la, les) here".

Just a thought.

Hi there, what does "la cuisinière" refer to? I'm familiar with rice cookers, pressure cookers and slow cookers; is the word used for any specific appliance in particular? Thanks!

In the last sentence, "he has become" is translated "c'est devenu."  Why not "il est devenu"?

Why is it l'eau du robinet rather than de robinet? On the other hand it is usually de like in résolutions de fin d'année.