French language Q&A Forum

If a sentence is initiated by a fixed duration, is it always necessary to use passé composé?

For example, if I want to say….

During the six days of the trial, the judge was sitting at the front of the room, the lights were low, and the courtroom was full.

I have a fixed duration…. which aligns with the use of passé composé.  But I am giving a description of the situation, with all things occurring simultaneously, and the information does not progress the story…. which aligns with the use of imparfait.

For me, it makes more sense to use imparfait, but I have been told that the presence of the fixed duration at the start of the phrase mandates the use of PC.

The sentence as I would write it is as follows:

Durant les six jours d'audience, le juge était assis à l’avant de la salle, les lumières étaient sombres et la salle de Cour était pleine

It never lasts long >

Can I use "il ne dure jamais longtemps" instead of "ça ne dure jamais longtemps "?

I just did a quiz that says “Ils partent leur travail à 19h“ is wrong & “Ils quittent leur travail à 19h” is the correct answer. Can someone please explain why this is so? I can’t see why “partent” is wrong given what the lesson content says. 

why do we not say:- 

L'année prochaine, il commencera à l'université

réveillez pas tard. That was marked wrong because  "réveillez lost the second  "e" and became révillez. what lesson is that taught in please. Thankyou in advance

Hello! I still don’t get what this quote in the lesson  means:

“Note that for regular -IR verbs, the je/tu/il/elle/on forms of le Passé Simple are exactly the same as for le Présent. The context will help you know which tense is intended in thoses cases.”

Is the point being made that “Je dormis” both carries the meaning  “I slept” as well as “I sleep” or “I am sleeping?”

Why does the young woman have a lilt on words at the end of her phrases? Is that a cultural thing? It reminds me of a California "valley girl" accent...