French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour.

re. mal vs mauvais/mauvaise: Is the adverb "mal" used as an adjective with the copular verb être, to say "bad"?

For example, to say "good", do we only use the adjective of "good" with être (a copular verb): "Pierre est bon. C'est un bon homme." But, when saying "bad" instead of "good" with être, do we use "mal" (adverb) instead of mauvais to say "He is bad",  but use "mauvais" when a noun is present? : "Il est mal. C'est un mauvais homme." 

I find this topic confusing.

Cheryl

I've read through the questions and answers below, but still don't understand the following example.

Test question: "I haven't been in France for long?" (ie, I recently arrived and I'm still here; ongoing).

From the lesson it seems the best construction would be: Ne...pas + Présent Indicatif + depuis longtemps (started a short while ago and is still ongoing).

But Kwiziq says the best answer is: Ne...pas + Passé Composé + depuis longtemps (not for a long time / not in ages).

If someone could explain it more clearly, thanks.

The question: La personne ________ je pense me rend heureux.

I wrote "a qui" but "a laquelle" was marked correct...Why is "a qui" nearly correct and not correct when your examples show that both are correct?