French language Q&A Forum

In the Note Bene in today's newsletter, you refer to communication preferences.   Where is that?

I wrote  préférerais, but it was corrected to  préfèrerais. I looked up the dictionaries, and the former is given a s correct.

This rule's main aim is to make sure the pronunciation is always [toot] in the feminine. Indeed, in front of a vowel and mute 'h', the last 't' of tout is pronounced because of the liaison, hence no need for the extra 'e'.

Is this saying that the extra e is optional, or is this a rule?

Many thanks 

Alison

Cette exercise et l’exercice de B2 cette semaine (‘Se réconcilier avec un ami’) ce sont très interessantes avec la vocabulaire et des phrases très utiles ! Leurs sujets rendent le travail difficile de les faire amusant. Bon travail ! Merci !

Is there a list of verbs that are followed by "a" ?....  such as demanded 

Despite studying some references given to me by Maarten, I still erred in choosing the wrong past tense for the translation of "Hi Charlotte, have you been following the Cannes Festival this year?".  I interpreted 'has been following' (past progressive, I think, in English) as a continuing action throughout the year, hence imperfect tense.  If you had said " Did you follow the Cannes Festival this year", I think I would have chosen passé composé.   Still a bit confused.

I've seen the use of ne (without pas etc). I've seen it with the subjunctive but also I think in another context. What does this mean and when do you use it?

I know on Lawless site there are lots of conjugation tables (thank you). It would be great to have conjugator table quizzes (by level) where some of the answers are missing and you have to fill them in. Even just for the most common verbs. Just a suggestion really. 

It seems illogical that the French have chosen to say: « Que nous voulions » and « Que vous vouliez » (which are the same as l’imparfait) instead of « Que nous veuillons » and « Que vous veuillez » which IMO would fit in much better with the subjunctive theme. 

I think the explanation for avoir envie de vomir needs to be amended to say that this can be expressed using avoir besoin de as well as using devoir. Having studied the lesson, I assumed you could only use avoir envie de.