French language Q&A Forum

Why is this incorrect?  Il est aussi riche qu'ils

When doing the writing tests, I find myself regularly struggling with knowing when to place accents (and regularly second-guessing myself too!).

Are there any rules of thumb to help with this? For example, the 'ô' seems to always appear in words which sound similar in english and one would place an 's': eg hôpital, hôtel, hôte, etc.

I generally have trouble with accented 'e's (ignoring the "obvious" accents, such as when using the passé composé and other conjugation rules) so any advice would be very welcome.

Est-ce qu'il y a une différence entre "futur" et "avenir"?

J'ai appris "avenir" en tout cas, et "futur" pour dire "le futur simple" par exemple.

Why does the last sentence use the impersonal construction, "Pourquoi se priver" instead of "nous priver"? 

Also, I translated "namely" as "en l'occurrence" but that wasn't one of the accepted answers (only "nommément" and "à savoir"). Is there a difference?

I'm fully aware that student counts as an occupation, that the article comes in when there's an adjective, etc. What's confusing me is that is I've encountered people using the article with student (and only with student, no other occupations), with even some statements from native speakers online who say "X est un étudiant" feels more natural to them. I've also seen some other programs teach this as well; I'm well aware this is a different program, and am only stating how muddy waters seem on this! 

Is there a variation or shift occurring in the language (akin to the après que + subj. vs indic.)? Thanks!

in this sentence from  a roman policier La salle des meurtres by Phyllis Dorothy James 

L’appartement, qui donnait sur Kensington High Street, arborait l’ordre excessif et impersonnel d’un logement préparé pour la visite de nouveaux locataires. L’atmosphère était un peu confinée ; bien qu’occupant un étage élevé, Dupayne avait pris la précaution de fermer ou de verrouiller toutes les fenêtres avant de partir en week-end. 

Here  bien que was not followed by subjonctif ! is that correct ? and would you replace it by bien qu'occupant un étage élevé, Dupayne ait pris la précaution .....

Hi. There used to be a button to repeat the exercise once you'd finished it? At this level it's really useful to be able to do that.

Pourquoi DE ici et pas ‘des’, ‘du’ et ‘des’?

Is it "j'ai encore besoin de l'aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire !" Instead of j'ai encore besoin d' aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire!" because it is a specific dictionary that they are talking about?

Speaking to friends, would it not be correct to say: 'Dépêche-toi', rather than 'Dépêchez-vous'?