French language Q&A Forum

 I am trying to find some more examples about the difference between l'an/l'année and I am now confused. For example, I want to find out whether to use l'an/l'année in "I got pregnant the same year I got married." in French. Google Translates says "Je suis tombée enceinte la même année de mon mariage." and another translation software called DeepL says "Je suis tombée enceinte l'année de mon mariage."

Are these sentences correct? If so, why do we use année instead of an? Because I am very convinced an/année indicates a particular point of time here. Thanks for answering.

est-ce ce qu'on peut dire rejoindre?   

Not sure if this belongs here as another one of the meanings of être + passé or if it's just idiomatic, but I came across this variant in the J'adore nager listening excercise https://french.kwiziq.com/my-languages/french/exercises/overview/629, and neither this lesson nor the other one Passer/se passer/se passer de - the different meanings of the verb "passer" in French, helped decode it. According to what my search turned up, it means "it's over", or "it's gone"? It does make sense with the context.

Are flâner and Le flâneur (to wander, wanderer) commonly used in conversation or are they more literary?

"Les enfants demandent des bonbons".  I used "du" as the bonbons are not counted.  Am I to use "des" because the bonbons CAN be counted, even though they are not in this sentence?

So in an earlier exercise, "I love swimming," you had a possible answer for fear of heights as "peur du vide" but not in this one.  Is there a reason why?

Elsewhere on the site, there is an example sentence: Ils sucent encore leur pouce. They're still sucking their thumbs.  Why doesn't leur pouce become le/la/les pouce(s)?

Is "etait donne" (with accents) definitely correct here? it's not "etant donne"? thanks