French language Q&A Forum

Je préfère celle de Serge quand même :)

For a change of pace I decided to use seulement instead of ne...que for the following sentence:

"J'ai eu deux chats." . Write "I had only two cats.": ________ deux chats. My answer J'ai au seulement deux chats... was marked wrong! I understand Chris' response to another use that the focus of the exercise in ne que..but in many of the tests (choose ALL the correct answers) they had both the 'seulement' version and the 'ne que' version as GOOD answers.
Unless my answer has an error which I am overlooking  ,or there is a point of grammar why seulement is unacceptable here,  I would like to suggest a revision of the test marking to accept seulement.
There may be sound reason why learning to use seulement is beneficial, even if 'ne que' is considered better in formal writing. Based on further reading, I have found that SEULEMENT ALSO can VARY IN PLACEMENT  ..to differently focus the restriction. Rules for seulement: Cannot be placed BEFORE the conjugated auxiliary/ does not have to be placed (unlike many adverbs) IMMEDIEATELY after the conjugated verb/can be placed just like the 'que' before the 'target word '  being restricted.
So it seems : I had ONLY two cats= je n'ai eu que deux chats OR J'ai eu seulement deux chats.

I ONLY had two cats == Je n'ai qu'eu deux chats or J'ai seulement eu deux chats.
As usual I stand ready to be corrected!

Isn't it odd to say she has French à trois heures (which is in the middle of the night?)  Would it not be be more reasonable to say à très heures de l'après-midi or à treize heures? 

In the line “The second page seemed almost identical to the previous one” the answers do not contain a word for “almost”, such as “presque”. Is this intentional, or should the answers be corrected?

For reference, the answers are: (i) La seconde page avait l'air identique à la précédente, (ii) La deuxième page avait l'air identique à la précédente, (iii) La deuxième image paraissait identique à la précédente, (iv) La deuxième page semblait identique à la précédente. 

Thanks, Brian

Why is "celle" the correct answer  to this

 "J'aime ta robe mais je préfère ________ que Laura porte," 

rather than "laquelle"?

Aren't they both pronouns identifying one among others?

Vais sounds an awful lot like veut to me.

Would it be appropriate to use "génial" as a translation of "nice!"?

In the phrase, "...il faut défendre ses opinions", why do the French use 'ses'?  I would have expected 'vos', i.e. it is necessary to defende YOUR opinions.  Is it simply the way the French express this allusion to others?

Got the concept, but would like a list of numbers ☺️