French language Q&A Forum

Bonjour Madame Cécile !

The lesson states that when talking about “time”- ‘avant’ and ‘après’ are used.

Now, if a sentence is -> 

1.Mon chien court ______ le petit chat. 

I think here, the answer should be “après” (after) because in English too, we say- The cops ran after the thief. But, why is the answer “derrière” ?

2. Regarde le bel oiseau perché ________ cet arbre ! 

Why is “sur” correct ? I had opted for “dans”. How can we judge the difference between “dans/sur l’arbre” ?

3. On admire les grands palmiers ________ l’île.

Again, here the answer is “sur” ? The other options- “dans/à” are not acceptable. What is the grammatical concept behind this?

Je vous remercierais du fond de mon cœur.

Bonne journée!

Fidèle is an adjective that precedes nouns? 

Can you give me some guidance on when to use mal as an adjective.  I wrote "le reste du casting n'avait pas l'air mauvais". 

I believe it is similar to bon v. bien as an adjective.  I read somewhere that bon is used to describe taste, smell, physical sensation or a person's level or quality  Otherwise, use bien as the adjective.  Is this correct and does it apply to mauvais v. mal?  Thanks.

"They will have been happy together" doesn't make any sense in English. It is mixing future and past with no mood context.  It implies that you looked in the future and could see that they had been happy in the past (which is your future).  If this is a tense that cannot be translated, then it should be translated directly as a lesson.  

I’ve been looking for the main difference with avoir besoin de and avoir envie de and thought I got it when you say that avoir envie de is to feel/need to DO SOMETHING! 

But then the first question to answer is J’ai envie d’une nouvelle voiture and that blew it out the water. 

I am confused again! Why use one over the other in this simple context?

Thank you

What is the possessive pronoun for "on"? Is there a fixed one or does it depend on the situation i.e. whether "on" is used as a replacement for vous or nous? Thank you!

i learned that aimer is to love a person or animal but it means like for an object and if you want to love an object you use adorer eg j'adore le chocolat - i love chocolat. j'aime le chocolat - i like chocolat. Is this wrong?

It would benefit me and expedite my studies if the direct English translation were available just beneath the full text.  Though I usually understand the overall meaning of the text, I still have a few words on each exercise that are not obvious or already a part of my vocabulary.  Certainly I can copy and paste into google translate, but this takes unnecessary time and switching between windows.  Google translation is not perfect and sometimes offers an awkward rendering.  In this example, I was not used to the use of the word pistes to indicate ‘tips.’  I was also not familiar with ‘quant’ or ‘AVC.’

On a completely separate issue, I could benefit from a brief explanation of why particular verb forms are used in certain situations—use of the imparfait here created a little confusion.  A little ‘teacher’s notes’ section could be useful.

I get a lot out of work out of these dictees and appreciate having the opportunity to practice them.  I think with a little bit of extra explanation from your side, they could benefit me even further.  Thanks for your consideration.

je suis Aref et je viens d'Iran.

To quote the lesson