French language Q&A Forum

Ils ________ demeuré à la campagne l'été dernier.They stayed in the countryside last summer.

For me, it is obvious that you should use "avoir" as "demeuré" does not agree in number with "ils". Perhaps if the subject pronoun were singular more care and thought would be required in deciding whether the verb is "être" or "avoir". Just a thought!

In the C1 writing challenge "A Ghost Story" the partial sentence "While I was pulling weeds" in the context "While I was pulling weeds ... I heard..." was translated "Tandis que j'arrachais les mauvaises herbes". "Alors que" was also suggested but my answer "Pendant que" was not. Why is that?

Larousse (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais/while/624050) translates "while" as "pendant que" when it refers to a simultaneity of time (e.g. pendant que vous serez à Londres il faut visiter le British Museum), whereas "tandis que" and "alors que" it says are applicable to the case where "while" is used in the sense of "whereas" (e.g. elle est de gauche tandis qu'il est conservateur).

the way the explanation is written suggests you are talking about more than one pronoun – not just ‘me-moi’.  Are there others?

i.e. 2- THEY are placed after the verb………

How can "vous êtes arriv________ en retard" ever be "Vous êtes arrivé or arrivée en retard". It can surely only be "vous êtes arrivés" or "vous êtes arrivées en retard"??