French language Q&A Forum

I know that typically, retourner is used to mean "to go back" and rendre is used to mean "to give back." But on this page: https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/auxiliary-verbs-2/ , which discusses using variable auxiliary verbs in the passé composé, it mentions that retourner can also be used transitively and in that case, it changes its meaning to "to give back." So in the passé composé, can retourner be used in the same way that rendre is?

For example, would both of these be correct?

1. J'ai rendu le livre à la bibliothèque.

2. J'ai retourné le livre à la bibliothèque.

For some verbs like passer, monter etc there's a rule: 

When a verb is followed immediately by a noun (as opposed to a preposition), it uses avoir as the auxiliary, like most verbs.

But in the book « Les verbes et leurs prépositions » (by Jean-Michel Robert, Isabelle Chollet) there's a note for the verb convenir:

Le verbe convenir se conjugue avec l’auxiliaire avoir lorsqu’il a le sens de « plaire, être appro­prié à », avec l’auxiliaire être lorsqu’il signifie « décider ensemble ».

So I'm confused. What would be the right choice in the following case?

1. La date que vous m’aviez proposée ne m’a pas convenu.

2. La date que vous m’aviez proposée ne m’est pas convenue.

From the one side, here convenir means « plaire, être appro­prié à », therefore it shoud be conjugated with avoir.

From the other side, there's no COD here: "La date" is the subject and "me" is COI, so être should be used.

In "la surprise n'en sera que plus grande" why "n'en sera que" rather than "ne sera que"?  The lesson says en can replace the preceding de+phrase but I cannot see de+phrase.

Hi!

I don't want the tips that appear in the fill-out-the-blanks exerceises. Can I choose to turn them off?

Thanks for any help! :)

I'm at >97% on A0 and yet basically all of the questions are A0-related. Any ideas on how to move onto A1 material?

Not that it necessarily requires a separate lesson, as it follows the same pattern as most of the other verbs, but perhaps 'tomber' should also be on the list of dual auxiliary verbs - être in intransitive form, avoir in transitive form. 

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/tomber/78343#difficulte

I find the questions which ask things like "If I say "Tu es français.", who am I speaking to: Lucie or Hugo?" quite frustrating, because the gendering of names isn't fixed.  According to https://madame.lefigaro.fr/prenoms/prenom/garcon/lucie, Lucie, whilst predominantely feminine, has been a mixed name for over a century. 

I think this is more a question about the use of lui, but there are some examples here that use it. Ils rient avec lui, pas de lui. They laugh with him, not at him. 

How do we know lui is HIM and not just him/her without any other context. Do I just take the translation for what it is, or am I missing something fundamental? I find this to be so confusing. Thank you. 

Bonjour,  la cinquième phrase a le mot “départments”. Qu’est - ce que c’est, un départment? Pourriez - vous m’éxpliquez? Merci beaucoup.