French language Q&A Forum

When do we use marron or brun for the color brown? 

Le mot est magnifique, bien sûr.

Bonjour à tous, 

I've come access this sentence somewhere using "être on train de" in Conditionnel passé tense:

I would have been skying in the Alps if I hadn’t broken my leg.

Je serais en train de skier dans les Alpes si je ne m’étais pas cassé la

jambe.

I think we must use avoir (in Conditionnel présent) + être (in past participle) as follow:

J'aurais été en train de skier....

Could you explain which one is correct?

Merci beaucoup d'avance.

I can hardly hear the "ne" in this sentence.

Is the "ne" sound sometimes dropped in real spoken French?

Why is it « nouvel » and not « neuf » when the raincoat would be brand new from the store? I thought neuf is for new, never been used, and nouvel is for been used but still pretty new.

Why was this marked incorrect for "I am five minutes late" ?   According to the lecture, can use either "Je suis en retard"  (de 5 minutes) or  "J'ai (5 minutes) de retard"   

What is the difference in meaning between l'article partitif (du, des) and l'article contracte (du, des)?