French language Q&A Forum

Merci

Why not "était" instead of "a été" ? 

Oui, je sais, c’est vraiment bête, why not c'était vraiment bête,

Le pauvre Tom n’arrêtait pas de dire pardon,  Tom was'nt stopping saying pardon,  instead of why not use ? Le pauvre Tom n'a pas arrêté de dire pardon, Tom did stop saying pardon,

Tom did not stop saying pardon, or Tom ne arréterait pas de dire pardon, Tom would not stop saying pardon.

I find these tenses very confusing,

"He's thinking of his holidays.  He's thinking of it."

Can I suggest that "He's thinking of his holidays.  He's thinking of them." would be better?

The online French-English dictionary translates "je ne peux pas attendre a" as "I can't wait to", with numerous examples, but you list only "j'ai hate que" as a translation for "I can't wait to".  Is there some difference between "j'ai hate" and "je ne peux pas attendre" in actual French usage?

Thanks.

In the last question I chose to use sera and not va être and I wonder why this was considered to be incorrect. I know the difference and if being rigid yes, it's wrong but of course some people will say "will be" rather than "going to be" so some latitude would be helpful. 

I am confused by how these words are used. In the Reader above the second paragraph begins: Pour commencer, j'espère de tout cœre qu'il fera beau.....Why is ce qu'ilnot used?

Which is correct. Il fait beau or il y a du soleil?

I don't know if this has been suggested already, but I've heard this acronym as a rule-of-thumb (not an absolute rule) for which adjectives in French come before a noun: 

BAGS (Beauty, Age, Good or Bad, Size)

You define L'imparfait as being about things that happened repeatedly in the past or past habits. Yet "You had eaten cereal this morning" is neither a repeated action nor a past habits, yet is expressed in L'imparfait... "tu avais mangé des céréales ce matin"? Sounds more like your definition of le passé composé - a single event in a defined timeframe. I get that the grammar is correct.  What I'm questioning is your definitions.