French language Q&A Forum

In the quiz it gave this translation of the English : 'Ils n'ont plus de vin" but I would have translated this as 'they don't have any more wine', which is quite different in meaning in English. Would my version be incorrect? If so how would I say that in French? Merci!

Sometimes the English translation is not even close to what the French should be. Could you possibly give us the basic expression and then we can make the necessary changes? It is very frustrating and disheartening to spend so much time looking up vocabulary and invariably choosing the wrong word/expression. For example in this exercise," Do you ever hear  from Tatiana?" Looks pretty easy! If you could give the basic "ça + pronoun+arrive de+ infinitive", we might have a much better chance of getting it right and actually using it again. I have a pretty good understanding of French grammar but I am having a hard time with these writing exercises because I don't know the idiom or the expression. It would be more useful if you could list the most important vocab in French in the writing exercise ! Many times the explanations that accompany the exercise don't apply because the problem was not the grammar but the idiom or the expression used. Just a suggestion! I have really improved so much using this site. I do appreciate all your hard work. It is the best site on the Internet.

Shouldn’t the participle agree with the preceding object? Or is it only a direct object?

We were asked to translate from English "nights when you are not here."  The answer is "les soirs ou tu n'est pas la."  I don't have accents on my keyboard."  Why "la" and not "ici"?  Is "ici" a correct alternative?

The "preferred" translation indicates that their son fell asleep "a poings fermes," indicating that he was deeply asleep.  I dispute this -- kids may fall asleep with their fists closed, but not tightly unless they are under severe stress.  I would suggest that a better indication of deep sleep would be the other suggestion - "il dormait profondement."  This is from years of watching a number of sleeping children -- mine and others'.  Just a thought....

Would you be so kind as to explain what "fait une tete de plus que Marie" and "a gagne haut la main" mean.  I tried to look them up but to no avail.  I think I understand them in context, but would like a bit better understanding.  Thank you!!  I did try to click on the phrases in question but nothing appeared; it would be helpful if, once the test were completed, that mechanism worked on the dictees as well.  Is that possible to fix???

(I eat other things as well as potato)

I can't seem to find a straight answer about the use of the hyphen in this situation.  I know that object pronouns are attached to the positive imperative verb with a hyphen, so you would write, "Lisez-le!"  I am also informed that "ça" is a pronoun.  But somehow, I find "Lisez ça", not "Lisez-ça!" and I wonder if anybody has any thoughts about why.

Bonjour! For this part: "You cannot say: Tu ne veux venir pas ce soir. 

Is this only true for this sentence? Can someone elaborate on this further and  give another example using ne pas/plus/jamais between verbs (like tu peux ne pas venir). Thank you :)

Is there a general rule in French about when to spell out numbers? For example in american english I think the rule is to spell out numbers ten or less and just use the number when greater than ten (eg, 12 instead of twelve). Thanks!