French language Q&A Forum

The phrase I saw: 

Je suis tout à fait satisfait du cadeau que j’ai trouvé pour Sarah. Je l’ai emballé dans DU JOLI PAPIER et je lui donnerai ce soir.

Here the "du joli papier" I thought it is not preceded by any "de" preposition. "emballer dans" is the preceding phrase. So why is DU used here? A mistake?

I'm inferring from the context that "clou" here means something like "highlight" or perhaps "grand finale", but I was unable to anything like this sense in the reference materials that I have on hand. "The nail of this stay" doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so I figure it has to mean something else.

Help in sorting this out will be appreciated.

what is the difference between annee and an? ive only heard of/used annee before

I’m confused about why the possessive of “Ils” in this lesson is “se“ rather than “ses“?

It seems that inoubliable is an adjective for année, with "et ce film" being only an interjection, so that inoubliable should be singular.  If it were written "qui rendront cette année et ce film" then the plural would be required.  

I see that the preferred translation for 'my thirst for reading' is 'ma soif de lecture' but I don't see how this relates to article use. She has a thirst for reading in general / the idea of reading. If she had 'an enthusiasm for reading' it would surely be 'un enthousiasme pour la lecture'. What am I missing?

Is it acceptable to say ' Celui qui trouve la fève' instead of 'Quiconque trouve...'?

Really don't understand why the waterpolo is faire du versus jouer au. There is a ball involved, n'est pas?

I am having a difficult time deciding when devoir is appropriate and when it is not.  All the other applications, I am ok with.  But if devoir implies "must have" why is a purse a necessity? Why not just Avoir besoin?  And why is sleep NOT a necessity (or I may be getting this confused at this point). This is getting to be more of a guessing/memorization thing than an actual understanding thing.  I see from the previous posts that this has been discussed ad infinitum so it's not just me.  Any easy way to decide when to use devoir and when NOT to use it in this context?

Thanks

Salut, dans vos premiers indices, pourquoi donnez-vous "Bonne chance" = "good luck," quand le meilleure reponse est "la bonne fortune"?: Merci.

  : pour apporter la bonne chancfortune à tout le monde !