French language Q&A Forum

Why isn't "se rencontrer" suggested as an option for "to meet" in addition to "se retrouver" and "se rejoindre" in the sentence "...on se retrouvera à la bibliothèque..."?

Mais pourquoi , on dit pas : je ne veux pas venir ce soir ?

No mention is made in the lesson for verbs ending in uire (conduits, traduire, construire) that when conjugating the verb construire, the first R is dropped in nous constuisons and vous constuisez. Is it also dropped in ils/elles constuisent or does it stay as in construisent? Does this also apply for détruire?

The lesson says "j'ai mal, tu as mal" etc. In a test the question was to translate "Antoine's shoulders hurt". I wrote "Il a mal a les epaules" and it came up wrong, saying i should have written il fait mal a les epaules" (sorry it wouldn't let me put accents on)

Pourquoi dit-on 'j'habite Orléans" et non pas

"J'habite à Orléans"?

The accepted answers included:

- j'ai toujours eu des sentiments très mitigés à ce sujet

- j'ai toujours eu des sentiments très mitigés sur le sujet

I put a combination of the two: "J'ai toujours eu des sentiments très mitigés sur ce sujet" which was not considered correct. 

Is there a reason why "sur le sujet" works but "sur ce sujet" does not?

Qu’est-ce qu’on a ajouté (what was added) au participe passé, allé, quand le sujet a changé dans le tableau précédent? 

Qu’est ce qu’on ajoute?

Il est allé - masculin singulier

rien

Ils sont allés- masculin pluriel

    allé + les accords

Elle est allée- féminin singulier

allé + les accords

Elles sont allées- féminin pluriel

allé + 

In number 6, I submitted the phrase “pour fabriquer des” and it was corrected to “pour fabrique les,” but in the paragraph above it contradicts that correction. Which is right?

I have come across the following sentence in a novel that I’m reading: ‘On avait laissé dans un coin une applique allumée, parce que la lumière des bougies eût été insuffisante.’ I would like to know why the subjunctive is being used here, because I have always been told that parce que is followed by the indicative. The novel in question dates from the late 1940s, so it’s not a very archaic usage.