French language Q&A Forum

... car le bureau de poste local n'offrait plus ce service. 

In this section of the sentence the 'S' at the end of 'pluS' is pronounced. This seems at odds with the lesson 'Ne ... plus = no more/no longer' which states: -  

Note that when plus has a negative meaning (no more), you don't pronounce the final 's', except when you do the liaison with a vowel following ('z' sound).

... in the exercise plus is followed by 'ce' and 'ce' does not start with a vowel and as such should not be pronounced? 

I listened to the first phrase many time, and it definitely sounds like she says "et" and not "and."  

Yes Paul. I agree with you. I never learned phrases like that in school. Would they be commonly used ie. Should I try to use them in conversation or would I get funny looks, haha?

In the exercise:

“the one which ran along the stream up to her favourite clearing.”

translates to:

“celui qui longeait le ruisseau jusqu'à sa petite clairière favorite.”

Is the use of ‘petite’ in order to indicate affection for the clearing, thereby emphasising that it is a ‘favourite’ place? I’m wondering how to interpret it, as the English doesn’t contain the adjective ‘little’ or ‘small’.