French language Q&A Forum

Pourquoi pas , "mon sac à dos"

I find the difference between singular and plural to be very subtle in spoken French, even when spoken slowly and carefully as in the audio lessons.

des (¨day¨) vs de (¨duh¨) 

J'adore aussi l'odeur des châtaignes (plural)

J'adore aussi l'odeur de châtaigne (singular)

Any hints on how to pick up that difference when listening?

Given the sentence: 'Gwoka combines music, singing and dancing' to translate I used 'allie' which I did consider as a synonym to 'combine', yet it was marked as a mistake...
I am confused though, was it really wrong?

This question is not re the use of qui(subject) vs que(object) in relative clauses.

It is the concept as the lesson stated of  "If it refers to the whole part of the sentence, the whole idea, then it will be ce que/ce qui."

The examples in the lesson are pretty straightforward. 

But does the grammar rule "If it refers to a noun (expressed before), then you will use que/qui...TRUMP the 'concept' guidance.

In the sentence,"the oil,which was supposed to burn for a day, burned for eight days. ** Note the commas please **.  The 'which' clause is not really further describing the oil. It is not similar to "the oil which(that) I used". It is pertinent to the entire miraculous situation/idea . What was incredible was that the oil burned for eight days.. nothing about the OIL itself was incredible.

Even in writing this question, the  thought process gets tangled up between grammar rules and context. And here the context seem to defy the grammar rules.

I don't see why the correct answer would be in the imperfect, since the coming of the tradition is something that has happened and is over with. The imperfect doesn't work. The correct answer should use the passe compose: Cette tradition, qui est venue....>>

Why is the question "Tu as froid?" instead of As-tu froid?"? Are both correct or is it convention?

“Un bon moyen de mettre la finance au service d'un projet de société alternatif.”

 —-

Is the adjective “alternatif” in the masculine form because it’s linked with the masculine noun “projet”? Is there a chance that it should be linked with the female noun “société” and therefore be “alternative”, or is it obvious to French speakers that this would not be the case?

 Thanks, Brian

In all the above examples you use avoir + faire expres de, except on Elle fait exprès d'être en retard. 

Could you please explain why it isn't better to say "elle a fait expres d'......"