French language Q&A Forum

I know that depuis can be used with the passé composé in the negative sentence but can it also be used with the affirmative?

How would you translate a sentence like:

I have seen him once since last week or They have visited their grandmother twice since last week. 

When I translated them into Google and other translation sites they both use the affirmative passé composé with depuis, which I didn't think you were meant to do. 

Et la télé ? -  Il l'a regardée.- What about TV?  - He watched it.

BUT!I don't know whether the rule is valid for for "me,te,nous,vous,?
Tu nous ai regardé(e)s or  Tu nous ai regardé

In being asked to complete a phrase beginning 'un' and meaning 'a kind of talent' why is 'genre de talent' marked wrong? Is that not what it means? The dictionary gives une sorte , but un type is also possible. If you want us to translate the english 'a certain talent' , which is I think wat the French means and is certainly different from ' a kind of talent' which is rather perjorative, perhaps that's what you should ask us to translate?

in this text it said 'I explained to her', which I would have thought was 'Je lui ai expliqué' but no.

so, when to use (for example)

j'avais expliqué 

j'expliquais 

Three questions:

1.     “quand ça arrivera” – would “quand ça se passera” be acceptable?

2.    “la grande ville où nous habitons” – would "la grande ville où on habite” be acceptable?

3.    “intelligemment” – would “habilement” be acceptable here?

The model provides this sentence:

Nous mangerons dans une heure.

But a quiz corrected my response of

Nous mangerons dans trente minute seulement.

With

Nous mangerons en trente minute seulement.

My understanding was that "will" was the cue for "dans", but evidently not.  Any clarification will help.  Thanks.

How to choose properly, whether should i use disjunctive pronouns or COI. Je telephone a elle or Je lui telephone? A real conundrum to me! 

Why maison in plural is not maisones since it's female it needs to end with

 '' es ''. But instead ends with just '' s '', maisons ? 

Help :'(