French language Q&A Forum

in the text, you start by saying 'ils leur ont préparé un cadeau....'  Singular.

but at the end, you say '....de si jolis cadeaux'.  It is hard to know if it is plural or not by just listening, especially when we started with just the one.

In the lesson on simple Passive tenses an example is:

Les étudiants étaient accueillis par le directeur tous les ans.
The students were welcomed by the headteacher every year.

In this lesson, we have the example above: Elles ont été surprises par ...

They were surprised by ...

In both cases the English tense is the same, but it differs in French. Is it important, or can you choose whichever you prefer. 

Is there a general rule in French about when to spell out numbers? For example in american english I think the rule is to spell out numbers ten or less and just use the number when greater than ten (eg, 12 instead of twelve). Thanks!

As a French major studying literature, it made sense to learn passé simple. But now, over 40 years later and speaking French as a tourist, I have no need for it. I’ve really enjoyed Lawless French until I got to level c and so many questions on passé simple! I’d rather learn helpful vocabulary and expressions/idioms than advanced verb conjugations.  Love, the site, but not passé simple!  

Just read all the other comments—glad I’m not the only one who’s not keen on passé simple. 

This is a sample sentence from this lesson: 

J'ai de plus en plus de mal à me concentrer.

I understand the more and more part.  As a student, without the translation, I would not have come up with I'm struggling more and more to focus.   I was seeing this as ... I have (more and more) pain myself to concentrate.  Is there a lesson on avoir mal a that talks about struggling?  If so J'ai de plus en plus de mal avec cette example! :)

Why not "au-dessous de la limite de vitesse"?

Bonjour Madame,

In this quiz , there is a sentence as "surtout quand elle détache ses longs cheveux roux."

Here, I am puzzled as to why possessive adjective is used with a body part but there is a lesson which contradicts by advising to use definite articles. Is this an exception ?

Secondly, why is 'roux' used for red ? Why not "rouges" ?

Bonne journée !