French language Q&A Forum

This is more of a comment than a question.  My problem is that in terms of the grammar, I know all the concepts and have achieved 90% in my progress reports.  I only achieved 50% for this because of the speed and liaison/elision of the speaker.  For example  "moins le quart" sounded to me like moinsquart.  I did not pick up the "le".  Another example "Le taxi arrivera vers six heures et demie", I didn't hear "vers" at all, so substituted "à" for it to make sense.  I need B1 to be successful in an application for citizenship.  Phew!!  I've got a long way to go.

Please can you explain the ending of the word "partir" for me in this instance? I put "is" and it was incorrect, 

many thanks, Marie

In translating "Before we moved to the city when I was 13," I used the past subjunctive, "Avant que nous n'ayons emménagé...".  However, you used the present subjunctive, "n'emménagions".  Why is that?

For I haven't stopped all day..., shouldn't one say, "Je n'ai pas m'arrêté une minute...  (i.e., i haven't stopped myself). Isn't arrêter alone mean arrêter + qqch ? Or in the case it is implying "Je n'ai pas m'arrête (+faire qqch) so the reflexive is not used. 

Also in French is there a way to distinguish: 1) We are all keeping our fingers crossed, and 2) We are keeping all our fingers crossed? (or in general: We are all selling our qqch vs. We are selling all of our qqch where qqch is a masculine noun? ). 

It would be helpful to have the dictation slower, or at least become slower as one needs to hear it repeatedly

What does récompense mean, I for one thought it meant rewarding.

when we should use j'ai instead of je suis and examples .Please explain

Les marrons are sweet chestnuts; horse chestnuts, popularly known as conkers, are marrons d'Inde. They are of a similar appearance but from different trees. Also, I wouldn't recommend eating horse chestnuts.

for: This lady has an unquestionable elegance.

I used "elegance incontestable" and it didn't accept it

Hello, I am a total beginner at French, and I hope someone can please guide me. I am having trouble recognising the different tenses when reading a sentence in French. In English we would say : "He READS a book" as an answer to a question like "what does he do whilst taking the tube?". 

If the question was "what is he doing?", In English we would say "He is READING/ a/ this/that". How do I tell whether the person is DOING something or DOES something in French? Example : 

"Elle lit un livre" She reads a book. 

"Elle lit un livre" she's reading a book. 

Initially, I thought you'd have to read the rest of the sentence to work it out, but I can't imagine this is how it works all the time. In English there is a distinctive difference : "I go to the .../I AM going to the..."

"He has a.../He HAD a..."

"I watch .../ I AM watching". 

Have I missed something in the lessons? 

Apologies for the long winded question and capitalisation. I like to believe I am fluent in English (it's the only language I know) however I find articulating in my own language difficult at the best of times !! 

Thanks