French language Q&A Forum

The lesson says quelques can translate as "some" and I’d be interested to know the situation in which you’d use it rather than "des"?  Does it emphasise the quantity more? 

As I read this lesson, I see two directives: 1) with trouver one always needs "que" and 2) with trouver, sometimes you don't need "que". Please explain a deeper difference between the two usages presented.

Is there any difference between "il a fait exprès de casser ma poupée" and "il a cassé ma poupée exprès"?

I've only ever encountered the latter before, and it seems more straightforward to not have the extra verb floating around, but perhaps there's a subtle difference that I'm missing?

Quelle est la différence d'utilisation entre les magasins, les commerces et les boutiques ? Est-ce une question de taille, de spécialisation, etc. ?

I get that "magasin" is generally a retail outlet & "commerce" is more for small business, but I've seen them used interchangeably. In the States "boutique" is usually for high-end or very niche-oriented items, but that doesn't always seem to track en français.

When referring to a single person of unknown gender, is it correct to use le/la leur, or is that a situation where theirs should be translated as le sien/la sienne?

E.g Would "Someone has forgotten their wallet.  Don't take it!  It's theirs." translate to "Quelqu'un a oublié leur portefeuille.  Ne le prends pas!  C'est le leur."  ou "Quelqu'un a oublié son portefeuille.  Ne le prends pas!  C'est le sien." 

I would think that this would follow the rule of feminine place names getting en, but I keep hearing people say « dans la Nouvelle-Écosse » instead of « en Nouvelle-Écosse » like I would expect

Okay, don't laugh, but why would chercher take a direct object pronoun? For example, why is it "il les cherche" and not "il leur cherche".

Merci !

I would be grateful for a clarification of the following:

In a sentence such as: Frank writes fast but Olivier writes as fast as him. "Frank écrit vite mais Olivier écrit ________ lui": why do we use the adjectival "aussi vite que "instead of the adverb "autant vite que"?  

Hi, I just came across this on a test and I wrote that it could mean Jack descended on the giant (as opposed to the stairs ) and this was marked incorrect but in the explanation it states that they descended the stairs requires avoir as the auxillary verb so I cannot see why descending on the giant is any different? They both have a direct object.

I am a bit confused about this. Thanks