French language Q&A Forum

it is so hard to return to lessons i want to work on. it is so random.  i am in my 70s and reviewing my french for a trip and its like being in a storm. i cant tie down what i need to work on. 

Why use du coup instead of donc? Du coup and donc both translate to so.                   

I was wondering if "je préfère rester dedans" would be an acceptable response?

Hi, why ‘ce sont’ rather than ‘ces sont’? It’s plural. Thanks, Stephen

C'est vraiment tard !  But he seems to be stressing "that". So "c'est" can be "that is" as well as "it is"?

pour utiliser une bouilloire dans une phrase je dis je n'ai jamais eu une bouilloire ou je n'a jamais possédé de bouilloire

In a quiz, I used brun instead of marron. Why is it wrong?

Emma says "je crains que ce ne soit un peu trop bruyant pour moi". I understand that this is an example of the 'ne explétif', where the 'ne' does not mean 'not', but is a more 'old-fashioned' form of expression, used with phrases like je crains que, avant que, à moins que, etc. It was explained to me that it is optional in modern French, and not commonly used.  In which case, would it be likely that Emma would use it in this context?  Or is it there just to provide an example of this concept?  (i.e. should we use it or can we safely ignore it when speaking?)