French language Q&A Forum

I quote:  "Note that quite a few verbs, such as regarder and attendre, are used without prepositions in French, i.e., regarder [x] [quelqu'un]; attendre [x] [quelqu'un], whereas they have one in English (i.e., to look at [someone], to wait for [someone]."  (For English speakers, an easy way to remember that we don't put an "a" after regarder and attendre is to consider these words translatable as "watch" and "await" which similarly, in English, do not require a preposition.)

saying "literally - and we completely remade my wardrobe" isn't quite right when you've missed out "together"? I feel like these hints aren't helpful and in fact hinder my progress in the text as they aren't "literal" at all. Plus in that sentence, to say "we bought me a new wardrobe" isn't quite what a native English person would say, they'd simply say "and we bought a new wardrobe (for me). 

Hope this can be of use and makes sense from my point of view. 

If

Ne le lui donne pas is don't give it to her, 

what is don't give it to him?

Why do we say "le prochain étape" and not "l'étape prochain"?

In the phrase "...parce que je savais que nous nous en souviendrions pour le reste de notre vie," why is se souvenir conjugated in the Conditional? I thought a verb following "savoir que" had to take the subjunctive, especially since it is not a known fact.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/subjunctivisor/savoir/

Currently working on my pronunciation and am trying to get it right from the get-go because I know how hard it is to overwrite bad pronunciation habits. 

My question revolves around the "ai," "ais," "ait," and "aient" letter combinations and if it's pronounced as è or é  (or  ɛ vs e using IPA). I found this great article on Lawless French (link below) talking about how the distinction is strongest in Parisian French and not so much otherwise (I'm assuming its very regional and depends on ones upbringing). I get the difference between the verb tenses the article talks about (the difference between future, passé simple, conditional, and imperfect).

What I still hear most of the time in words like lait, anglais, frais is speakers preferring the "e" sound, not ɛ. I've even noticed that in verbs ending in ais, ait, aient, (ie. était, avaient) that they tend to lean towards an "e" sound. Both of these cases should be ɛ according to my dictionaries with IPA and the article.

Should i just go ahead and get into the habit of leaning towards the "e" sound in these cases? I'm totally fine with that and I like the sound a little better, but I just want to get into what sounds the most French (again, I understand there is going to be a whole scale of variability here). Just want to build those good habits. 

Appreciate any and all feedback!

Here is the link to the article.    https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/ai/

Just to let you know...

Just a small typo here. It of course should be “about France” or “about the French”. 

Rafraichir has not been updated to accept 'rectified' spelling yet - still correcting to rafraîchir.

I understand the construction and use of "Il veut que j'aille acheter du lait.", but I wonder if "Il me veut acheter du lait" is any less correct? Thanks!