French language Q&A Forum

My understanding was that "Du" is a contraction of "de le". Why do we use "du" but not the equivalent "de la"?

Thanks!

The sentence to be translated:

Plus, his songs were extraordinarily varied…..

The correct answer:

De plus, ses chansons étaient si extraordinairement variées….

Why is si required here ? I left it out and was marked wrong.

I would appreciate a lesson on the verbs used when expressing the desire to do something or looking forward to doing something. 

Also, a lesson on the expressions used to mean "picking someone up" would be appreciated. 

Merci. 

Sharing an observation (from KiwizIQ quiz answer): ‘faire du hockey’, not ‘faire de l’hockey’ so an exception to the silent ‘h’ rule.  I accept it (it sounds better; perhaps ‘hockey’ being a foreign word is relevant?).

Why is it "des problèmes" and not "de problèmes" 

So I translated "un proffeseur" to be "a teacher" and it was incorrect, with it saying I should have translated "one teacher". The accompanying grammar lesson only has information on the indefinite article (which I was using). What's going on?

comme j'aime les chats, j'ai particulièrement apprécié cet exercice. au moment où j'écris, mon chat dort au soleil sur son lit, où elle restera jusqu'à ce qu'elle ait faim ou qu'elle veuille être caressée :)

Could you provide additional explanation for this: When the time expressed uses hour numbers above 12 (in the "24-hour clock" -> 13h, 14h...), you use instead quinze, trente, quarante-cinq, probably for pronunciation (and elegance) . 

I am having a hard time understanding these translations in the examples of a 24 hour clock.