French language Q&A Forum

Pendant des années, je me suis plié en quatre pour arranger les choses entre nous...

t's describing something habitual that happened over a long period of tim.  It's in the middle of a longer passage also in the imparfait setting the scene for a discrete action to come....  

Thanks in advance for the insights I know you will provide.

I didn't finish this exercise the first time round. I've come back to it - a long time later - but unfortunately it doesn't remind me which words/phrases to look up in advance, so had to guess all of them! Please could you do a reminder for when this happens?

What is wrong with saying "j’ai trouvé le livre d'enfants"?

Bon jour.

If indirect speech is in the present tense, is it necessary to replace ce/cette/etc with something?

E.g.

Sophie demande à Oliver: “Explique-moi cette règle !”

Elle lui demande de lui expliquer cette règle-là.

Because in the indirect speech we don't know what is "cette" règle.

Hello, perhaps i missed this/am not understandng something: is there a rule for en versus de usage? eg une robe de satin or une robe en satin? 

I don't understand this sentence at all.  Perhaps de rever, but first person singular?  The rest of the exercise is in the past, it has already happened.

Hello, i dont always want to do dictation.  How do i listen to and read the French at the same time?

According to Wordreference, they recommend the word, ombrelle, for the umbrellas found in cocktails.  Should this word be accepted?

This phrasing is not how a native English speaker would say this. I think “ Nantes was France’s best city for cycling” would be clearer. As is, it sounds like the city rides bikes.

What is the difference between devoir in Le Conditionnel Passé and L'imparfait?

For example: Where do these two questions differ?

1. Tu devais fermer la porte à clé.

2. Tu aurais dû fermer la porte à clé.

And please don't simply translate them into English. Paraphrase would be better for me to understand. S'il vous plaît !