French language Q&A Forum

How can I get better in dictée

Whilst "dans" obviously translates to "in" - I would never say I'm going to stay in this hotel in English; I would say that I'm going to stay at a this hotel in English.

However, I was marked incorrect.

Oh la, la!  1 200 variétés! Quel préférer-toi?

j'ai mangé pendant une heure vs j'ai mangé en une heure.

Do they have the same meaning: I ate within one heure?

Thanks.

THe subjunctive form is "nous ne detestions pas" yet in your exercise you have "nous ne  detestons pas" ??

In this lesson, Expressing Numbers from 70 to 999, the paragraph which begins "Note: Before the 1990 Spelling Reform, numbers including et as well as numbers higher than 100 didn’t include the hyphen...", has two examples, "deux cent" and "deux-cent", neither of which have "cent" written as "cents". They should have an "s" at the end shouldn't they, since they are not followed by another number? 

"We listened to the water".

I would have considered that a past imperfect ie, "Nous ecoutions les bruits de l'eau" because you can't listen to water at a specific moment in time - it's a continuous action in the past. "Nous avons ecoute les bruits de l'eau" isn't appropriate. 

We got splashed with water would be passe compose but not a continuous event of listening to the water?

Suggestions please....

Admittedly, I'm more used to Québécois French, but the recording contains what has to be one of the oddest pronunciations of "ben" I have heard. I expect it to rhyme with "hein" or "en", but I swear the recording is closer to "bamme" than anything else. 

Am I missing something, or has my ear glitched? Please let me know.