French language Q&A Forum

in this text it said 'I explained to her', which I would have thought was 'Je lui ai expliqué' but no.

so, when to use (for example)

j'avais expliqué 

j'expliquais 

comme il mâchait la bouche ouverte

I'm wondering why the 2 different verb tenses here.  One act (of seeing) is related to the other act (of chewing) but 2 different tenses were used. 

Bonjour,

I was working on the verbs with à and De  and I was looking over my A1 section I was wondering what I need to work on next? Should it be more prepositions by itself or stick with working with more verbs so I don't get confused?

Thanks

Nicole

Bonjour

If voiture is feminine then isn't the use of longeur for wide correct. I was marked wrong.

Does the impersonal expression 'ça roulait très mal' literally mean the traffic was very bad ?

According to Larousse (and wordreference) , as an adjective for the colour purple, either violet or pourpre is correct. Pourpre is not being accepted as a correct alternative in the lesson for 'a purple broom', only « un balai violet » is accepted. 

I know that some may reserve « pourpre » for a darker red, "short" of purple - colour perceptions and names are always subjective.

How does "Tu as un chat'' mean "You have a cat" and "Do you have a cat?" when spoken? Simply due to the raised pitch at the end? 

I don't agree with the following tip. I agree with Harton.  I am English and was a teacher of English.  What you suggest is very formal and rarely used in nowadays in spoken English.  I believe that just as it is important to learn French as it is actually spoken, it is also important to learn English as it is actually spoken.

Whereas in English, you will need to use a subject pronoun after than (... than I (do), you (do), he/she (does)...), in French you will once again use the stress pronoun after que (... que moi, toi, lui/elle, nous, vous, eux/elles). You will also never repeat the verb (do/am/have) afterwards:

While the speed was challenging, by listening several times I better understood many of the words. In the future, I will need to follow the whole story more carefully to help put each line in better context. Question: As someone at A2, am I overreaching to practice at a B1 level?