French language Q&A Forum

The rule with c'est vs il/elle is that you are speaking of a specific item.  In this lesson one of the examples doesn't appear to follow that rule:

The lesson translates "Is it a second-hand car?- No, it's new." to "C'est une voiture d'occasion? - Non, elle est neuve." 

Why doesn't the question use Elle instead of C'est?   They are talking about a specific car--i.e. the one purchased by the speaker.

Can you say "ça est une idée brillant?

The translation is

Martin hasn’t been here long. 

If the sentence is in le passé composé wouldn’t “depuis longtemps” mean “in a long time” and thus the translation would be “Matin hasn’t been here in a long time “?

Regards 

Catherine 

Looking for advice as to whether this works for - What do you expect me to do?:

Qu'attendez-vous que je fasse?

I don't understand the tense of this verb "venus" used in this sentence

Un festival de courts métrages venus des quatre coins de la planète.  

A festival of short films came from 4 corners of the planet.