French language Q&A Forum

HI, love the dictées. I get muddled with punctuation. The fluctuations of the tone of voice is not always a good hint, especially when we stop and start mid-sentence. Short of my  listening to the entire dictée a few times prior to starting, and taking notes, do you have any hints that might help? Thanks.

Could you provide additional explanation for this: When the time expressed uses hour numbers above 12 (in the "24-hour clock" -> 13h, 14h...), you use instead quinze, trente, quarante-cinq, probably for pronunciation (and elegance) . 

I am having a hard time understanding these translations in the examples of a 24 hour clock. 

I think in informal conversations we say like -

Il est pas jeune 

instead of the more formal and more 'grammatically correct' one:

Il n'est pas jeune!

Is it correct !? Responde Sil vous Plait! 

I don’t think the "grand" in the final sentence sounded quite right, more like gros. It was fine in the recording of the whole extract but not in the individual exercise. Or is it my ears?! (Une nouvelle que nous avions accueillie avec grand soulagement !) 

Why is there no article after "amateur de" and before "histoire"? Is it just a fixed phrase?

comme j'aime les chats, j'ai particulièrement apprécié cet exercice. au moment où j'écris, mon chat dort au soleil sur son lit, où elle restera jusqu'à ce qu'elle ait faim ou qu'elle veuille être caressée :)

This appeared in my test. The question I have is not around the the subject pronoun, but about "ont de jolies poupées". Is this a rule regarding "avoir de"? So whatever object follows it, whether it's singular or plural you always use "de"?

Tu dois rester a la maison