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Ils ont skié sur une piste difficile.

Ils ont skié sur une piste difficile.
They skied on a difficult slope.
From Lesson 99:Closed duration (pendant)·French

Questions & Answers about Ils ont skié sur une piste difficile.

Is skier a regular verb in the passé composé?
Yes, it is! Skier is a regular -er verb. To form the past tense here, you use the helping verb avoir (ils ont) and change the -er ending to -é, giving you skié.
How would I add that they skied on this slope 'for' two hours?
You would add pendant deux heures to the end of the sentence. As you are learning in this lesson, pendant is used to mean 'for' when talking about a set, closed period of time, making it perfect for a completed past action like this one.
Why do we use the preposition sur here?
In French, you ski 'on' a surface like a slope (sur une piste), which matches English nicely. If you were talking about skiing in the mountains in general, you would instead use à (à la montagne) or dans (dans les Alpes).
Does piste only mean 'slope'?
Not always! Piste generally means a track, trail, or path. Depending on the context, it can mean a ski slope (une piste de ski), a dance floor (une piste de danse), a dirt trail, or even an airport runway.
Why does difficile come after piste?
Most French adjectives are placed exactly like this: right after the noun they describe. The main exceptions are short, common adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, or Size (often remembered as BANGS), like petit or vieux. Since difficile isn't one of those, it follows the normal rule and goes after the noun.

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