French language Q&A Forum

Why isn't nouvelle année not in caps? 

How do I take a quiz on relative pronouns?

This discussion has me confused- it seems contradictory.  The question was L'année ______ Napoléon a été sacré empereur.  I knew that 'où' would be correct, but from comments in the thread it stated that 'pendant laquelle' would also be correct.  So I tried that but it was marked wrong.  I'm also confused as to whether 'dans laquelle' would be ok.  There are comments in the thread that imply it is ok, but others that it "doesn't sound right".  Can someone clarify?  Thanks 

Can anyone explain why the subjunctive 'puisse' is used here?

This explanation doesn't explain why sometimes one says 'L'hiver' and at other times, 'En hiver', and similar for other seasons.  The examples given do not enlighten me much.  I have always had trouble with this.  At first I thought, oh, you use 'l'hiver' when you are going to say something describing a feature of 'hiver', and 'En hiver' when you want to say something happened during 'hiver', but then the other examples given in context of other seasons etc mostly described activities occurring during the season regardless of the 'en' or 'l'' beginning.

I need it stated explicitly what the rule is, there doesn't appear to be one.

My question concerns the imparfait conjugation of the verb 'exister' in the sentence:

Aussi, lorsque j'ai appris qu'il existait un musée qui...

I would like to know if conjugating here in the imparfait (existait) does not imply that the museum used to exist, but no longer does.  I am inclined to want to conjugate 'exister' in present tense to get around this problem, yet I know its gramatically incorrect to do so. If someone can help, I would greatly appreciate.

Have a good day all :)

How to make sure your translations  are correct in English to French 

Cette chanson me rappelle le film 'Etre et avoir'.  Bien pour la rentree aussi.  Merci!