French language Q&A Forum

I don't understand the usage of a été and était in some cases.

For example, in this exercise: https://french.kwiziq.com/my-languages/french/exercises/overview/1414
one of the sentences is "Ce matin j'ai été assez paresseuse". Why is "j'ai été" used here instead of "j'étais"? Doesn't "ce matin" automatically imply duration (as in she was being lazy the whole morning or during some part of the morning)?

But in this exercise: https://french.kwiziq.com/my-languages/french/exercises/overview/1414
one of the sentences is "Maman était très heureuse". Why is it "était" instead of "a été"?

Hi, I had written a question on the linked lesson but I think perhaps this is a better space. I believe I had written "à un hôpital" and this was marked incorrect in favour of "dans un hôpital."

Is this because the focus of the sentence is the work experience which takes place inside the hospital? Or what is the reason why dans can be used but not à?

Merci! 

Why is j’ai de la farine correct when je n’ai plus de farine is also correct? Ie why is de la farine correct in the first sentence (per my last quiz?)

How do I distinguish between a reflexive verb where the action is happening to the subject and not to each like in reciprocity as explained here.

Hi,

In the above examples, the je/tu/il/elle/on conjugations sometimes use plaî--- and sometimes use plai---. Is this an oversight or is it intentional?

Thank you.

Hello,

I was confused a couple of times because in the United States, they still use commas to represent spaces in thousands: 19,956.
In Canada, we write, 19 956.   Do your lessons take this into consideration?
Thanks in advance.

How can you differentiate the story from history ie. l’histoire. was marked as incorrect but I think it could have been either

The use of "de" truly escapes me. In this exercise, why does the "de" after "profiter des jouets" becomes "des" but in "plateau de fruits de mer" it does not? I thought that when the structure requires a "de" (as in profiter de qch or beaucoup de), the "de" didn't change to du or des (like un plauteau de qch), whereas when it doesn't require it, you use it like "some" and it does change to agree with the noun (like here with commander qch becomes "commander des pizzas").