French language Q&A Forum

I just read that the definite article MUST contract if followed by a masculine article, but see that "la boulangerie est près DE l'hôtel" is correct.  Shouldn't it be "la boulangerie est prés DU l'hôtel"? 

When would you use the "aller faire..." format such as in "Avec mes copines, on va faire du shopping ce weekend", versus just "faire du shopping"?

The pronunciation guide leads with the above statement. For completeness, shouldn’t it mention that the t is pronounced before a vowel or h muet? 

(Obviously, it’s there in the audio examples and also implied in the section on tout + feminine adjectives)

I don't understand why animal familier is used in this exercise, but is considered unacceptable in the other writing challenges in this group.

Why couldn't I say "as voulu" for "why did I want a dog?

Hi,I'm doing B1 French and I generally understand the use of the subjunctive but got tripped up recently. The first example was " we want someone to guide us".  ..."on veut que quelqu'un nous guide'

Am I right on thinking the subjunctive is guid+e relating to "on" which is 3rd person singular and therefore guide+e. Of course the " on veut que" demands the subjunctive.

In the second example " He wants that we guide him," ( Il veut que nous le guidions), the Subjunctive ending is guid+ions  relating to "nous" which is 1st person plural therefore ends in "ions".

What adds to the confusion is that "on veut" is conjugated like "Il or "elle" but in informal use " on" can mean " we" which is "nous" in French.  I hope I have explained everything well ( and as an aside j'éspere is not a Subjunctive trigger in the affirmative but is in the negative) so you may see why it's so difficult sometimes. Any comments gratefully received.

Bonjour,

In the dictation, why does it say, "l'appart EN colocation" (shared appartment) and why not "l'appart DE colocation"?

How do you remember which countries/regions are masculine/feminine? I find this hard.

I think this distinction is changing, even amongst ardent defenders of the purity of French