French language Q&A Forum

I understand that de + les = des, but is it more natural to use 'des' here, even though the 'les' is part of the title "Les Misérables"? The alternative correct answer was given as 'la petite fille dans "Les Misérables", which seems to preserve the title of the book.

I recently read that someone (who is a native speaker and well-informed on grammar and usage) said that it is incorrect to say 'en arrivant à la maison' -- that is is 'en arrivant dans la maison'. While confirming that 'en arrivant au restaurant, ...au musée, ...au théâtre' etc. is correct, they claim that when saying 'arriving at home' the preposition 'dans' must be used. Can someone tell me if this is true, and if it is if it's just "because that's the way it is" or if there's some grammatical explanation? Thank you very much for your help!

Qu’en est-il de Julien et Sophie?

I don’t understand the structure of this question. I imagine there is an idiom I haven’t seen before. What is en replacing?  What is il referring to? 

Thanks.

What is the difference between navire and bateau?

Do non-reflexive verbs used in the past tense with a reflexive pronoun use être or avoir?

For example, if the above sentence "Les deux chiens se fixèrent avec méfiance" is put in the past tense, do we use être with the verb "fixer" (-->"Les deux chiens se sont fixées avec méfiance")?

Or, am I asking the wrong question? In other words, in French perhaps there is no such thing as verbs that are "non-reflexive." Instead, is it that case that any verb used with a reflexive pronoun automatically becomes a reflexive verb, which means the rule regarding use of être in forming the past tense applies?

This query isn't really related to this particular topic but this is the lesson attached to the question so I'll ask it here.

Question: Personne n'aime le nouveau professeur

Answer: No one likes the new teacher

I thought when used with a person, aimer on its own means 'to love' not 'like'? Is 'bien' not necessary here?

Please can we have topics on Climate, renewable energy, education etc as most topics we have for delf exams?

Hi, in the question where

“J'ai épousé Marianne” 

becomes

“Je l'ai épousée”. 

Why “épousée”? The aux. verb is avoir, and we’re using a direct object pronoun, so I thought it should be “épousé”.