French language Q&A Forum

in this example, two questions:

Ce sont les meilleures vacances qu'elle ait passées!

1. why "ce" instead of "ces", if vacances is plural?

2. why pasées instead of passée, if the noun is singular and avoir doesn't match in number?

I noticed that in your audio of "j'étais allé", there is not a liaison. Is it optional?

Does avoir besoin de ever become avoir besoin des or du?

Why is it that when you want to say new before the consonants, you say 'nouveau' but when you want to say new hotel, you say "nouvel hotel" because 'h' is a not a vowel

What is India called in French?

I'm fully aware that student counts as an occupation, that the article comes in when there's an adjective, etc. What's confusing me is that is I've encountered people using the article with student (and only with student, no other occupations), with even some statements from native speakers online who say "X est un étudiant" feels more natural to them. I've also seen some other programs teach this as well; I'm well aware this is a different program, and am only stating how muddy waters seem on this! 

Is there a variation or shift occurring in the language (akin to the après que + subj. vs indic.)? Thanks!

When to use que vs quoi