French language Q&A Forum

une boîte aux lettres / une boîte à lettres -> Letter box, Postbox.

It may be worth addding this to the notes as an exception to these rules. I believe it is used in singular and in the plural ?

Hi there;

Can I spell out my difficulty with this?

The three sample sentences are (and I've re-ordered the clauses on one to make my point clear):

Depuis que j'ai quatre ans, je porte des lunettes.

Depuis que vous nous l'avez dit, nous le savons.

Depuis que je t'ai rencontré, ma vie a complètement changé.

In the first two examples, the second clause of each is in the present tense; why not in the third example?

Best wishes,

Hugh

Is there only one correct choice for each sitaution or might different speakers view the situation differently and make different choices?

I find that I often get this sort of exercises wrong (for example in the "Un ville magique" test where I got 13/15 on my first attempt) but on looking again at the text and rereading the lessons I cannot convince myself that the alternative choice was better.

For example:

1. "L'endroit qui m'a enchanté au-dessus de tout, c'était le chateau de l'imperatrice Sissi". I had wrongly answered "m'enchantait" since Magalie being enchanted seems to me to be an ongoing state, not having a beginning and end.

2. "Je ne voulait pas plus repartir". I had wrongly answered "n'ai plus voulu" since the state of not wanting to leave would have ended when she actually did leave.

In one of the writing challenges, the sentence "As soon as we passed the door," is translated into French as:

Aussitôt que nous avons passé la porte, 

In reviewing the grammar topic "Passer can be used with avoir or être in Le Passé Composé... and changes meaning," however, I'm having trouble understanding the usage here. The grammar page says that "passer" is used with être for: 

 pass by <somewhere>, go past <something/somewhere>, stop by <somewhere>, pop by <somewhere>

In this case, it seems the sentence is "passing by (somewhere)" or "going past (somewhere)"

For avoir, the examples are = spend <some time>, take <a test or exam> , and pass <something> (to someone), none of which seem to match this sentence.

Can someone please explain why using "avoir" instead of "être" is considered correct in this case?

Thank you!