French language Q&A Forum

Hi there; apologies if this question has been asked and dealt with before. I have just been told that, as a translation of Aurelie eats bread, 'Aurelie mange le pain' is incorrect, with 'Aurelie mange du pain' being the correct answer. I can understand how, if the English was Aurelie is eating bread one would write 'du pain', because Aurelie can only ever be eating some bread at a given moment. I also understand how Aurelie mange le pain would lead one to infer that the sentence is referring to a specific piece of bread that Aurelie is eating. However, surely in English, one of the major connotations of Aurelie eats bread, is that it is a general statement about one of the kinds of food that Aurelie eats (in the same way that one might say Aurelie eats meat (ie Aurelie isn't a vegetarian). And if it is a general statement, then one is effectively saying that Aurelie will eat any bread that is put in front of her. In other words, she doesn't as a general rule, only eat some bread ('du pain') she eats all breads ('le pain'). In which case, shouldn't Aurelie mange le pain be marked correct? What am I missing here? Thanks in advance!

Oscar  à compter jusqu'à dix en français. (Oscar manages to count up to ten in French.)HINT: Conjugate "arriver" (to manage) in Le Présent 

Should this be ("gerer" ----to manage)

We will eat in an hour's time/after an hour,
" Nous mangerons dans une heure/apres une heure. "

If so, saying this would make the lesson easier to grasp, because dans and en mean practically the same thing when en means in in my head.

"the verb must agree with the gender and number of the person."

Can you please explain the discrepancy between these two sources of information? Thanks.