French language Q&A Forum

I'm a bit confused about the status of indirect objects as described in this lesson (and in the video). To my knowledge of English grammar, in "I speak to Paul", "to Paul" is a prepositional phrase and not a preposition (to) + an indirect object (Paul). Also, as far as I know indirect objects cannot occur without the presence of direct objects. 

Can I instead just memorize that you use the pronouns "lui" and "leur" only with verbs that are normally followed by "à"? 

il a mangé de magnifiques gâteaux

j'ai vu des entroits magnifiques

what is the significance of the adjective before / after the nown?

While doing this exercise, it went right on to the next section without giving me the chance to compare my answer or give myself a score on two of the sections. Hence the score of 50 out of 60. No big deal, since this was a very simple lesson for me. (Although it was useful in learning and recognizing the names of brands of beer, even though I don't drink beer!) I just want to do all of the listening exercises for practice. 

I simply wonder what might have happened.?

J'ai toujours trouver les problèmes de quand utiliser le passé composé ou l'imparfait.

I'm still having challenges in when to use the passé composé instead of the imparfait and vice versa.

Mélanie joue plus que Karine aux cartes. which is marked wrong seems to me to be just an inversion of Melanie joue aux cartes plus que Karine which is correct. Is this just one of those things the French dont do, or is there an underlying reason why the first version is wrong, please?

If "brun" is for fur, skin, and hair, why are the dogs and the mouse "marron"?

I spent many dejected days trying to understand the following rule in this lesson. "the main difficulty here is that in French you cannot use a conjugated verb after la veille or le lendemain, unlike in English: the day after he left / the day before you were born.

Instead you will use de + noun, as such:'

===========================

The imperative appeared out of the blue.  (I am not using imperative here in the grammar sense by the way but as a prohibitory order) It also seemed contradictory, because the sentence, 'The day after, I was enrolling at university/ Le lendemain, j'allais m'inscrire à l'université.    came right before it. ...a conjugated verb 'j allais' following lendemarin.

 What seems to be the case is that 'le lendemain'  or 'la veille' CANNOT be 'conjoined' with a descriptive clause or phrase for associated events  WITHOUT punctuation.  You identify the day using le lendemain or la veille but to add associated actions you must express them with a separate punctuated clause/phrase or use 'de + noun".

Examples:

the day after i was enrolling at university.../ le lendemain de mon inscription à l'université

the day after, I  was enrolling at university...Le lendemain, je m'inscrivais à l'université.

Do you use un or une when using nous and vous? I'm studying professions in sentences, and 2 of the sentences went as follows:

"Nous sommes ____ ____________" (The profession was a journalist)

"Vous etes ____ _____________" (The profession was a cook)

I'm confused on this and can't seem to find any articles online about it :(