French language Q&A Forum

Hi, should “En effet, ils permettent de se confronter à des situations inattendues et parfois déstabilisantes, ce qui nous oblige à nous adapter à des réalités complètement différentes.” be “En effet, ils permettent de se confronter à des situations inattendues et parfois déstabilisantes, ce qui nous obligent à nous adapter à des réalités complètement différentes.” because it is the “situations” creating the “obliger”?

Hi, should “on m'avait expliqué que le départ du ferry était retardé” be “on m'avait expliquée que le départ du ferry était retardé” because “m’” is a female direct object (I.e. Emeline is speaking)?

Also, the spelling on “En dépit de tous mes efforts pour arriver à l'heure à la gare ferrovière” is not coming up in WordReference, only “ferroviaire” is. Which is correct please?

Brian

I was asked to fill in the blank for the sentence, "After he said that, he left," where the conjugation of dire was missing. I had been asked so much lately about passé simple that I used simply dit, when a dit was expected. I was marked wrong for that.

But isn't it also correct, although unexpected? Or is it just that a native speaker would never do that for such a simple sentence, so it should be discouraged?

In English - Marie was stroking her cat / Her cat was being stroked by Marie   - but était caressé is 'was stroked' or 'used to be stroked' - am I right?