French language Q&A Forum

Why not "était" instead of "a été" ? 

Oui, je sais, c’est vraiment bête, why not c'était vraiment bête,

Le pauvre Tom n’arrêtait pas de dire pardon,  Tom was'nt stopping saying pardon,  instead of why not use ? Le pauvre Tom n'a pas arrêté de dire pardon, Tom did stop saying pardon,

Tom did not stop saying pardon, or Tom ne arréterait pas de dire pardon, Tom would not stop saying pardon.

I find these tenses very confusing,

And what if I want to say e.g: Clarrisa is a worse/better student than I am.

Clarissa est une plus mauvaise élève que moi/ Clarissa est une pire élève que moi.

Clarrissa est une meilleure élève  que moi.

and for plural:

Clarrisa et Ben sont de plus mauvais/de pires élèves  que moi.

Clarrisa et Ben sont de meilleurs élèves  que moi.

or maybe:

Clarrisa et Ben sont des eleves plus mauvais/des élèves pires que moi.

Clarrisa et Ben sont des élèves meilleurs que moi

I am not sure about the articles here... So is it ok what I wrote ?

What does  valeurs sûres refer to?

Why can't I write "Ton père est dans la prison.?

I think "dans la" & "en" both work in this example. My reasoning is that prison is a physical place.

In the 5th segment of the dialogue, the text reads:

 "- Je voudrais une boule à la vanille, une boule au chocolat et une boule à la fraise s'il vous plaît."

But the audio says:

" - Je voudrais une boule à la vanille, et(?) une boule au chocolat et une boule à la fraise s'il vous plaît." I'm not sure if that word is actually "et" as it almost sounds like "y a", as though somebody is saying "il y a" too fast.

This is in both the lesson and the end-of-lesson full text.

Quand est utilisee avec , pourquoi est-il que le verbe (e.g. arrive) n'est pas forme avec le E femenin??? (Pardon la faute d'accents!) Merci!

Pourquoi on n'écrit pas "en tant que votre thérapeute??????

Great exercise! This wonderful description of Le volcan de la Reunion reminds me of when I lived and worked in Guatemala - a magical and beautiful country with many volcanoes. Every evening, we could see the active volcanoes burning and glowing against the night sky. Like I said, magical!

I just want to ask why "nouvelles terres" is plural. Of course, I am familiar with "la terre" meaning "the earth". When I researched the meaning of "une terre" (as opposed to "la terre"), the translation given was "land". So, I wrote "quarante-cinq hectares de nouvelle terre". Which I take it would mean: "45 hectares of new land".  Is this incorrect or are both variations, correct?

Merci et Bonne Continuation !

P.S. Took a break for several weeks, (for personal reasons), but glad to be back. Love this community of positive and supportive learners!

Why not Patrick sent mal

Another one of those nuances that I cannot really see any pattern to is when to use the words "soir" or "nuit". "Soir" seems to be used more frequently with the phrase "every night" ("tous les soirs", "chaque soir") but not exclusively. Every now & then I see "tous les nuits" or "chaque nuit" for the same phrase. 

Should "nuit" be used only when there is a specific time frame, like when somebody works a night shift or the specific time is given that makes it obvious that the action is taking place "at night", & "soir" be used in a more generic sense?