French language Q&A Forum

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 

"Give birth" - why not "donner naissance"?

In the sentence: "Que tu l'admettes ou non, ce ne sont pas tes amis," why is "ce ne sont pas" used for "they're not" instead of "ils ne sont pas"? Thank you.