French language Q&A Forum

(I saw a related question below, but didn't see how to link this question to that one... so I'm starting a new question.)

My question is about how to think about the meaning of "ainsi que." It's translated as "as well as," but in some examples I run into a singular treatment when my brain seems to expect a plural. I think the lesson here for me is that this isn't a translation that works in some cases. I'm wondering if my feeling is true for American English but maybe not for other varieties?

Here's the sentence that tripped me up:

Les Etats-Unis, ________ l'Angleterre, sont un pays anglophone.The United States, as well as England, is an anglophone country.
In English, I actually wouldn't say a sentence like in the translation above - I would say "The United States, like England, is an anglophone country." OR "The United States and England are anglophone countries." I just wouldn't use "as well as" in that way. So my takeaway is that I shouldn't lean in to heavily on using this as a 1-for-1 translation. Does this work better in, say, British English? Thanks.

Hello. Is it really possible to find out, which tense i should use, if i only see this first part of the sentence, without knowing whats following?

When we arrived in the changing rooms,

This is doing my head in... My grammar exercise book has:

1. Nous devons fermer tous les volets. -> Nous devons tous les fermer.

2. Elle va faire toutes ses courses au supermarché. -> Elle va toutes les faire.

BUT

3. Nous souhaitons recevoir tous nos amis pour notre anniversaire de mariage. -> Nous souhaitons les recevoir tous.

My textbook gives no explanation as to why tous/toutes comes before the object pronoun in 1,2 but after the infinitive in 3.

I do not really understand why we use "ma" instead of "la" with "peau" here. The lesson on this point speaks of using possessive adjectives when the body part is the subject of the verb or for emphasis. Does "je sens le soleil sur ma peau" suggest a particular emphasis on "peau"? That would not be at all apparent to me. Thank you.

I have a notebook and I have added these two lessons.

Un/une become de/d' in negative sentences in French (French Indefinite Articles)

Du/de la/de l'/des all become de/d' in negative sentences (French Partitive Articles)

I went through several rounds of Kwiziq tests and I only get tested on the basic rules, never on the "ATTENTION" or "EXCEPTION" subsections of these lessons.

I got a score of 100%, but it feels like The app should also offer me test on these other topics.

How can I get more tests for these exceptions?

Example of rules I have never been offered any tests

This rule does NOT apply to sentences using the verb être and other List of French "state verbs" - "verbes d'état", with which the indefinite article doesn't change:

OR

When you want to emphasise the meaning of ONE (un/une) - not just a/an - as in He doesn't have ONE car, but TWO, you will keep un/une in the negative sentence - here it doesn't mean no/any: