French language Q&A Forum

I'm a little confused because I was under the impression that when you talk about something in general (not a specific thing), then you use le / la / les

For example, "Les trains sont grands" = Trains are big.
Not any one particular train, just trains in general. 

In my latest quiz I was asked to translate "Aurélie eats bread." 

To me that is a general statement, we're talking about bread in general, not any particular loaf or piece of bread. In the same way you could say "I don't eat meat". So I put "Aurélie mange le pain", but this is apparently incorrect and instead should be "du pain". 

I would have thought "Aurélie mange du pain" would translate to "Aurélie is eating some bread", no? 

Thanks

In one of the answers to a test it says 

Est-ce ta trousse? - Oui, c'est la mienne.Is this your pencil case? - Yes, this is mine.
Going by this lesson here, would it be correct to say 
Est-ce ta trousse? - Oui, elle est la mienne.Is this your pencil case? - Yes, it is mine.
The difference being between THIS  and IT.

I am a bit confused with ne...pas Le passe compose/ present indicatif for depuis longtemps. In a test I translated "How would you say ''I haven't been in France for long.''? as "Je n'arrive pas en France depuis longtemps."

But it was marked wrong.  Can you explain why Passe compose is the correct tense for this

Can this also be correct?

Can one say Nothing at all...rien de tout?

Hi, I'm wondering why the "de" is included in this line?

This lesson refers to the Infinitif Passé. I have been doing the lessons in order since level A0 and I don't think I have seen Infinitif Passé before. I figured it out, and finally noticed the link to a lesson about it at the bottom of the page, but perhaps this lesson could explain briefly what it is,  rather than using the name without previous explanation. 

"Si si, ..." -- I hear this all the time, but it doesn't seem to be an accepted answer. Is it just because it is technically redundant? Does it lower the register to use two "si" ?