French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour Madame Aurélie,

While doing a test named “Conte de fées” I landed up at a mysterious sentence -

Le père était àgé et sortirait rarement de son lit, alors sa fille devait s’occuper du jardin et des animaux.

Here I would like to ask you why a dû was marked incorrect although the English translation specifies ‘so his daughter had to take care of the garden .....’ . I read your lesson which states that one uses Passé Composé for an obligation that was very well met. And here too is the same case.

The link to the test -

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/my-languages/french/tests/take/2581800

Please help me to figure out the correct option as I am not very clear with this concept.

Merci d’avance ! 

Bonne journée!

In English there may be a difference in meaning between "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it" and "You went out even though I'm not ok with it"; I might have changed my mind in the interim: "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it [, but now I am ok with it]." Wouldn't this second sense require the imperfect rather than the subjunctive in modern French: "... bien que je n'étais pas d'accord"?

Tôt is wrong to say you are early today? Why? 

Would be more useful is we could see what gender were countries starting with a vowel. 

Why “Il ne faut pas confondre” as opposed to “Il faut ne pas confondre”?

1. According to multiple references « faire du lèche-vitrines » is invariable with the plural form of 'vitrines'. However, it appears that the 1990 rectifications accept the singular form. The plural form is still correct but is being red-lined through the 's'.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french/window-shopping

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/l%c3%a8che-vitrines/46459

https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9I1911

2. The hint for "Some of them deliver to your door " is to use the plural form of "yours" - I think this is meant to be use the polite form, as the expected script  is « votre porte », not « vos portes »

What is the meaning of 'très fleur bleue'?  I never heard that expression before.

Like everyone else, I find this lesson very confusing, and I think it is because it's using a very poor example of when to use articles. I believe the translation is incorrect. 

Je n'aime ni le fromage ni le lait.
I like neither cheese nor milk.

If this example is talking about specific cheese and specific milk, then the English translation should be, "I like neither the cheese nor the milk." But that is not what you have here. The translation you give is general, not specific. It really makes the whole lesson contradictory and confusing.

Why the hyphens in "pas - aussi - monstrueuse?"