French language Q&A Forum

My understanding was that "Du" is a contraction of "de le". Why do we use "du" but not the equivalent "de la"?

Thanks!

HI, love the dictées. I get muddled with punctuation. The fluctuations of the tone of voice is not always a good hint, especially when we stop and start mid-sentence. Short of my  listening to the entire dictée a few times prior to starting, and taking notes, do you have any hints that might help? Thanks.

Could you provide additional explanation for this: When the time expressed uses hour numbers above 12 (in the "24-hour clock" -> 13h, 14h...), you use instead quinze, trente, quarante-cinq, probably for pronunciation (and elegance) . 

I am having a hard time understanding these translations in the examples of a 24 hour clock. 

I think in informal conversations we say like -

Il est pas jeune 

instead of the more formal and more 'grammatically correct' one:

Il n'est pas jeune!

Is it correct !? Responde Sil vous Plait! 

I don’t think the "grand" in the final sentence sounded quite right, more like gros. It was fine in the recording of the whole extract but not in the individual exercise. Or is it my ears?! (Une nouvelle que nous avions accueillie avec grand soulagement !) 

Why is there no article after "amateur de" and before "histoire"? Is it just a fixed phrase?

rejoindre is an infinitive.  Shouldn't it be rejoignons or rejoindrons?