French language Q&A Forum

The meanings of present  participle

when I use "present participle" İn the begining of the sentences, does it mean "Because and after?
1-En me réveillant à 6h, j’ai fini avant midi.=Because I woke up at 6 am,  I finished before noon.
2-En me réveillant à 6h,Je suis allé à l'école= After I got up at 6 am,I went to School?
Please help  :)

I read this somewhere - why is the des not a de in front of petits?

Derrière moi vous avez des petits bateaux à voile mais aussi de grands bateaux à voile

Could not the translation for "You lose" be "Vous perde" as well as "Vous perdez"?

above was marked correct but next question what is a gendarme required qu'est-ce que c'est;

ive gone through to c1 and come back to revise and practise but still dont understand this topic, its obviously a mental block on my behalf but can any one make it simpler please?

I wrote this on my own time and was wondering if anyone can help guide me where I went wrong if anything is not right?

Je me réveillé we huit du matin. Nous sommes allées du faire shopping. Lorsque je suis rentré je practique Mon français et regarde la télévision. Je nettorai ma chambre demain. Aussi je parle we Mon copain sure let telephone. Aujourd'hui je Marche dans ma neighborhood.

Thank you for responding

Nicole

Can ensuite be replaced with puis in this sentence?  Are the two interchangeable or is there a slight difference in usage?