French language Q&A Forum

In filling in the blank for Bob __ par la reveil tous les jours (Bob was awaken by the alarm every day), I typed "a été réveillé par" instead of "était réveillé". Could you help me understand why the imparfait was incorrect? Thanks!

Greg

une boîte aux lettres / une boîte à lettres -> Letter box, Postbox.

It may be worth addding this to the notes as an exception to these rules. I believe it is used in singular and in the plural ?

Hi there;

Can I spell out my difficulty with this?

The three sample sentences are (and I've re-ordered the clauses on one to make my point clear):

Depuis que j'ai quatre ans, je porte des lunettes.

Depuis que vous nous l'avez dit, nous le savons.

Depuis que je t'ai rencontré, ma vie a complètement changé.

In the first two examples, the second clause of each is in the present tense; why not in the third example?

Best wishes,

Hugh

Is there only one correct choice for each sitaution or might different speakers view the situation differently and make different choices?

I find that I often get this sort of exercises wrong (for example in the "Un ville magique" test where I got 13/15 on my first attempt) but on looking again at the text and rereading the lessons I cannot convince myself that the alternative choice was better.

For example:

1. "L'endroit qui m'a enchanté au-dessus de tout, c'était le chateau de l'imperatrice Sissi". I had wrongly answered "m'enchantait" since Magalie being enchanted seems to me to be an ongoing state, not having a beginning and end.

2. "Je ne voulait pas plus repartir". I had wrongly answered "n'ai plus voulu" since the state of not wanting to leave would have ended when she actually did leave.