French language Q&A Forum

Why do we say "le prochain étape" and not "l'étape prochain"?

In the phrase "...parce que je savais que nous nous en souviendrions pour le reste de notre vie," why is se souvenir conjugated in the Conditional? I thought a verb following "savoir que" had to take the subjunctive, especially since it is not a known fact.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/subjunctivisor/savoir/

Currently working on my pronunciation and am trying to get it right from the get-go because I know how hard it is to overwrite bad pronunciation habits. 

My question revolves around the "ai," "ais," "ait," and "aient" letter combinations and if it's pronounced as è or é  (or  ɛ vs e using IPA). I found this great article on Lawless French (link below) talking about how the distinction is strongest in Parisian French and not so much otherwise (I'm assuming its very regional and depends on ones upbringing). I get the difference between the verb tenses the article talks about (the difference between future, passé simple, conditional, and imperfect).

What I still hear most of the time in words like lait, anglais, frais is speakers preferring the "e" sound, not ɛ. I've even noticed that in verbs ending in ais, ait, aient, (ie. était, avaient) that they tend to lean towards an "e" sound. Both of these cases should be ɛ according to my dictionaries with IPA and the article.

Should i just go ahead and get into the habit of leaning towards the "e" sound in these cases? I'm totally fine with that and I like the sound a little better, but I just want to get into what sounds the most French (again, I understand there is going to be a whole scale of variability here). Just want to build those good habits. 

Appreciate any and all feedback!

Here is the link to the article.    https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/ai/

Just to let you know...

Just a small typo here. It of course should be “about France” or “about the French”. 

Rafraichir has not been updated to accept 'rectified' spelling yet - still correcting to rafraîchir.

I understand the construction and use of "Il veut que j'aille acheter du lait.", but I wonder if "Il me veut acheter du lait" is any less correct? Thanks!

Hi Céline, in your excellent response below, just checking that after 'que' je is needed (or implied). Otherwise , wouldn't qui be used?

Hi, 

I was wrong when choosing “ tombée” in  “ Marie- France est ( tomber) de son vélo”. I agreeed the gender of subject( in this case, I think it ‘s feminin) as “learn and discuss says. Why? Is it that the subject here falls sthg ,not the subject falls. And past participle has to follow the gender and number of object in this case? Thanks.