French language Q&A Forum

I've read all the comments here and in the related links, several times.

It seems the rule be stated as, there's NO gender/number agreement of the participle when there is a direct object following the verb.

Ça vous dit ?

I translated the sentence beginning with, "do you remember where you put my peacock blue jacket..." as "tu te souviens d'où tu as mis ma veste..." but the accepted answer that used "se souvenir" (instead of "se rappeler") omitted the "de" so it read "tu tu souviens où tu as mis..."

Just wanted to know why we don't use "de" here? According to the lesson on "se souvenir de & se rappeler," the "de" is never omitted after "se souvenir"?

I'm fully aware that student counts as an occupation, that the article comes in when there's an adjective, etc. What's confusing me is that is I've encountered people using the article with student (and only with student, no other occupations), with even some statements from native speakers online who say "X est un étudiant" feels more natural to them. I've also seen some other programs teach this as well; I'm well aware this is a different program, and am only stating how muddy waters seem on this! 

Is there a variation or shift occurring in the language (akin to the après que + subj. vs indic.)? Thanks!

Can I ask about the following sentence:  "Now, remember that at the time" —> Maintenant, rappelez-vous qu'à l'époque"

In the English sentence "Now," functions as a filler, rather than meaning literally "at the moment" - you could as easily say "Well," or "So," without changing the sense of the narrative. I was expecting "donc" or "alors" and wonder if it’s common to use "maintenant’ like this?

'Mon frère qui habite en France.' I would assume it's wrong to use 'à qui' or 'auquel' in this context, but I don't know why? When is it most suitable to use 'qui'?

Why is  "Ils ont été" and not "Ils étaient" ? These answers for were baffle me. They have been - They were, or are they interchangeable ?

Why are we using "Fantaisie" and not "fantasme or fantastique" - as it my research shows "fantaisie" is to do with the music?

Next is why is it "Magie" and not "magique"? As my research shows that magie is to do with magic tricks whereas "magique" is to do with something amazing (i.e the film)

Next why is "S'assurer que" followed by the subjunctive "soit"? I've looked up this phrase and it says it's always followed by the indicative? 

One of the things I love about Progress with Lawless French is that in the Written and Dictation exercies, alternate answers are given so you can learn all the different ways to express a given passage. What I don't like, however, is that when a result comes up "Your answer matched mine", no alternate answers are given. I really miss that extra chance to expand my French that is provided in the alternate answers.

https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/pronoun-type/pronoms-d-objet-indirect-indirect-object-pronouns

This link says that an Indirect Object Pronoun can also be introduced by the preposition pour (for).  But I can find only examples with preposition ' à  (to)' ...Can you please share a few examples of Indirect Object Pronouns with preposition pour; can't find them in this lesson and other Indirect Object related lessons.