ne explicative mistake & mood mistake by me

Question

I am bring this up because I am desperately trying to find a site where I can check my written French. One I recently discovered https://bonpatron.com/ seemed promising at first.

In a quiz question here on the lesson topic above, multiple choice, my answer was marked wrong:

#1 Nous sommes entrés sans que vous ne nous entendez. (wrong, and I now see why)

The correct answer was:

#2 Nous sommes entrés sans que vous nous entendiez.

I can understand why my answer is wrong, based on the lesson.

I checked out all four sentences at Bon Patron including the last two

#3 Nous sommes entrés sans vous nous entendre.

#4 Nous sommes entrés sans vous nous entendiez.

For all four sentences, I was given a grammar score of 100% on Bon Patron.

So I am thinking that Bon Patron is not at all helpful, unless there is some really obscure reason that the three wrong answers here might be acceptable under some obscure circumstance, which I doubt.

Writing in French (to express my own thoughts) is a real challenge for me. At some point I have to go beyond set quizzes (and in no way is this meant as a criticism of Kwiziq) and use what I've learned here, so, for example, I can write correct French to French friend in France.

Anyone have any helpful ideas for me?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, if you do !

Accepted Answer

Hi Melody , 
Just to add to what Jim said, I can confirm that only sentence #2 is correct. I cannot comment on the material on other sites but just beware ! 
As for reading matters students of mine have found the reader section in the French adult section of European School Books site very useful  but I am not sure whether they can send to the USA. If you are interested I can give you further details.

Answer

Hi Melody,I am subscribed to Bon Patron and it is useful, but not 100% reliable.It is not possible to have a machine accurately check your French because there are too many variables (nuances, context, etc., etc.)I suggest you find yourself a French pen pal who will be willing to coach you through any mistakes that you make, but even then this approach will be limited to your pen pal's own language skill.Perhaps the best approach would be multilevel - This site, pen pal, reading French literature.Hope this helps?JIm

Answer

Thanks Jim,Question- with you subscription to Bon Patron, do you get to take more tests?  They have a sample one you can try.  That did seem useful.  But I wanted to try it out more before I subscribed.  With the results above.  As for reading French literature, not sure Le Bouchon de Cristal qualifies as "literature", but I've been reading and rereading it, and learned a lot.  The advantage to me was that I had a copy, and that the text is available online, so I could copy and paste parts of if into a computer document, make notes, and add translations from Google (ha!) and DeepL (better) when I was stuck.The benefit of reading it for me was that I gained a much better sense of how the language is constructed.  And my friend in France took a brief look at the book,  and told me that the grammar is correct although some expressions are dated.  I bought a copy of Swann, which it turns out is only the third past of Swann's Way.  I started reading the first few pages and was totally lost.  I read Swann's Way (English translation) decades ago.  I realized I need to find something of a different tone, more action, less philosophy and less social reflection.  Not another book by LeBlanc about Arsène Lupin.  Any suggestions?  Something out of copyright, so it might be online?Finding a penpal is a good idea.  I've done a tiny bit of research on this.  But all in all, I think I getting discouraged with learning French in general.  One of my main aims (the first at least) was to be able to speak French (better than in the past) with French people in France.  That is positive feedback, and I've had wonderful experiences on trips there.  But, the corona virus has made travel tough.  (I'm in the US)  Sigh.Melody

Answer

The first French book I read was "Le petit Nicholas" by René Goscinny (the creator of the Asterix comic book series). It comprises a number of independent short stories written in easy to understand French. Plus it is fun to read and made me laugh in several places. As an added benefit, it is available free online as a pdf: https://n1other.hjfile.cn/st/2016/11/22/bef6b188863962b8d31facb68bfc8aec.pdf

Another great book (and also easy to read) is "Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran" by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, which also has been made into a movie.

My third suggestion would be "L'amant" by Marguerite Duras.

Concerning writing in French and finding a French pen pal (or gal), there are several language interchange sites. Here is a page that reviews some of them: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/foreign-language-penpal/

Answer

Dear Chris,Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll check them out.  Just a note for others who might try to find "Le petit Nicholas"- the text link here (in your message) doesn't wrap around, so I had to keep reducing the size of the text on my screen to "miniscule" and even then I had to add the f at the end of .pdf.  I kept getting error messages until I figured out how to complete the link.I'll divide it in three parts https://n1other.hjfile.cn/st/2016/11/22/bef6b188863962b8d31facb68bfc8aec.pdfPut these together with no spaces for the complete link.I look forward to reading Le petit Nichols, which I now have opened.Thanks very much,  Melodyp.s., I'll also look at the penpal link.

Answer

Dear Cécile,Sorry for having taken so long to respond your comment, which I read a few days ago.I doubt that it would be worthwhile to try to send an actual book to the US, if that is what you are suggesting.  Our postal system is a mess.However, if I could look at the site, it might give me some ideas about what to read next or next after Le petit Nicholas ;) . Thanks,Melody

Answer

Hi Melody, 
I have checked and European School Books do send worldwide but you only get to know the cost at the point of ordering.
What you need to look for is 'graded readers' which are a simplified version of the original.
If you can get the isbn number you could maybe get them through another site in the US.
This is the page I came up with for adult graded Fench readers -
https://www.eurobooks.co.uk/languagebooks/series/FRE/m4/c21/6/ALRO?expanded=1
This page only copied one series, but there are lots more if you do your own filters. 
There are also other sites but I have not used them myself so hesitate to recommend.
One book which my son really enjoyed was - 
'Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune'  by Gaston Leroux ( of 'Phantom of the Opera' fame ) which is a great little thriller and should be ok for your B2 level ?
Anyway, let me know how you get on.

Answer

Thanks Cécile,Those look really interesting.  I might be able to find some of these online for purchase by other means.  I'm sure I will enjoy poking around at the site link you gave.  I do love reading "thriillers".  And I don't mind reading books that are above my B2 level.  As long as the grammar is correct.  I learned a lot from reading Le Bouchon de Cristal.Melody