French language Q&A Forum

Again, the use of little words like "bien" and "tout" are common in French and not direct translations from English.  A unit explaining the uses of these two simple words would be really helpful. 

"Il a bien compris."  "Il a tout compris."  "J'en ai bien envie." "Elle est tout heureuse."  "Il y a bien de choses."  "Il est a des kilometres de toute trace de civilisation."

Not trying to be a pest, but I would really like to master these simple little words and phrases to feel closer to fluent.  Thanks.

Is there one place where the pronunciation of "plus" is explained? I'm halfway through A1 and it seems sometimes the "s" is pronounced and other times not. I did a search but just came up with lots of individual cases. Are there any general rules stated in one place or is it all idiosyncratic except for the liaisons? Thanks!

I wrote out « dix-septième siècle » instead of « XVIIe siècle », but was counted off for that. Is it not correct to spell out the ordinal numbers?

Thank you