French language Q&A Forum

I note that there are quests in the past to improve the content of this lesson and I am unsure whether any modifications have been made but it is still difficult to determine when devoir is an appropriate answer as well as avoid besoin de and avoir envie de.  Is it that there is an infinitive following if so why only devoir and not avoir envie de as in the case of needing to buy a handbag?  Surely it could be made clearer - google is not a reasonable guide and I want to understand!

Bonjour,

Could someone please explain why the auxiliary before apparu is était rather than avait ? The whole sentence is: 

Je me souviens encore distinctement de la manière dont j'étais restée bouche bée lorsque cette belle dame, qui avait l'air d'être faite de paillettes, était apparue gracieusement sur cet étrange engin.

Merci, Matthew :-)

In the final sentence why is dépeignait not given as an alternative verb. It seems more precise than représentait.

ive obviously missed something, but why do we need les here when tous means all (ofthem)?

In the sentence '80.000 tonnes de cassoulet en conserve sont consommés chaque année' shouldn't 'tonnes' agree with 'consommés' ?

As mentioned earlier, "chaque an" cannot be used to mean "chaque année". So I am wondering if "toutes les années" can be used instead of "tous les ans" ? 

In this sentence - 'William Jones déclarait au sujet de cette langue ancestrale : "La langue sanscrite...' - why is the imperfect used with an action that happened only once, and on a specified date ?

I answered "Nous avons peiné a" rather than "avions du mal à". I think struggle is the better translation. 

I've always been baffled about when a hyper is used as in this interview "As-tu..."  Je bison d'aide!

 Not sure about this.. I have it wrong but, I suspect for the wrong reason

If you are asking YOU must, surely that demands Tu or vous.. il faut, ok, but surely this must then be il faut que tu ailles à l'école?