Croats or Croatians are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Due to political and economic reasons, many Croats migrated to North and South America as well as Australia and New Zealand, establishing a diaspora in the aftermath of World War II, with grassroots assistance from earlier communities and the Roman Catholic Church. Croats are Roman Catholics; the Croatian language is official in Croatia, the European Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian is a recognised minority language within Croatian autochthonous communities and minorities in Montenegro, Italy and Serbia. Evidence is rather scarce for the period between the 7th and 8th centuries, CE. Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Istria. In contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to have been depopulated, as all hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned in the early 7th century.

Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements is still disputed, there is a hiatus of a century. The origin and nature of the Slavic migrations remain controversial, all available evidence points to the nearby Danubian and Carpathian regions; the ethnonym "Croat" is first attested in the charter of Duke Trpimir. Much uncertainty revolves around the exact circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary sources during the 7th and 8th century "Dark Ages". Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the Croats in the 7th century on the basis of the Byzantine document De Administrando Imperio; as such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as a second wave of Slavic migrations, which took over Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus' work, written as it was in the 10th century. Rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more reflects the political situation during the 10th century.

It served as Byzantine propaganda praising Emperor Heraclius for repopulating the Balkans with Croats, who were seen by the Byzantines as tributary peoples living on what had always been'Roman land'. Scholars have hypothesized the name Croat may be Iranian, thus suggesting that the Croatians were a Sarmatian tribe from the Pontic region who were part of a larger movement at the same time that the Slavs were moving toward the Adriatic; the major basis for this connection was the perceived similarity between Hrvat and inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mentioning the name Khoroathos. Similar arguments have been made for an alleged Gothic-Croat link. Whilst there is indeed possible evidence of population continuity between Gothic and Croatian times in parts of Dalmatia, the idea of a Gothic origin of Croats was more rooted in 20th century Ustaše political aspirations than historical reality. Contemporary scholarship views the rise of "Croats" as an autochthonous, Dalmatian response to the demise of the Avar khanate and the encroachment of Frankish and Byzantine Empires into northern Dalmatia.

They appear to have been based around Klis, down to the Cetina and south of Liburnia. Here, concentrations of the "Old Croat culture" abound, marked by some wealthy warrior burials dating to the 9th century CE. Other, distinct polities existed near the Croat duchy; these included the Guduscans, the Narentines and the Sorabi who ruled some other eastern parts of ex-Roman "Dalmatia". Prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Liutevid, who ruled the territories between the Drava and Sava rivers, centred from his fort at Sisak. Although Duke Liutevid and his people are seen as a "Pannonian Croats", he is, due to the lack of "evidence that they had a sense of Croat identity" referred to as dux Pannoniae Inferioris, or a Slav, by contemporary sources. However, the Croats became the dominant local power in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines "merged" with Croats under control of Croatian Kings.

With such expansion, Croatia soon became the dominant power and absorbed other polities between Frankish and Byzantine empire. Although the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja has been dismissed as an unreliable record, the mentioned "Red Croatia" suggests that Croatian clans and families might have settled as far south as Duklja/Zeta and city of Drač in today's Albania; the lands which constitute modern Croatia fell under three major geographic-politic zones during the Middle Ages, which were influenced by powerful neighbour Empires – notably the Byzantines, the Avars and Magyars and Bulgars. Each vied for control of the Northwest Balkan regions. Two independent Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century: the Croat Duchy and Principality of Lower Pannonia. Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the Carolingian Empire around 800. Aided by Vojnomir in 796, the first named Slavic Duke of Pannonia, the Franks wrested control of the region from the

A Bescherelle is a French language grammar reference book best known for its verb conjugations volumes. It is named in honour of the 19th-century French lexicographer and grammarian Louis-Nicolas Bescherelle, it is used as a general term, but the "Collection Bescherelle" is in fact a brand name, used by Éditions Hatier for Metropolitan French, by Éditions Hurtubise for Canadian French. The series is made up of three volumes dealing with various aspects of French grammar; each of the three volumes uses example sentences to demonstrate proper French grammar. The term Bescherelle is used to refer to the first book, L'art de conjuguer. L'art de conjuguer presents the conjugation of every type of verb in the French language in every verb tense; each verb type is numbered so that multiple verbs with identical conjugation can be grouped under one basic verb of that type. L'art de conjuguer offers all of the rules concerning grammar within verb conjugation as well as a detailed guide on the purpose of each verb tense.

The most recent versions cover 12,000 verbs in 95 conjugation tables. The second volume, L'orthographe pour tous explains how to convert spoken sounds in French into writing; the third volume, Grammaire pour tous is a guide on French syntax, sentence structure, the application of proper grammar to sentences, punctuation. Bescherelles are used in French immersion schools, it is required for students to purchase one for class. Bescherelles exist on the grammars of German, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin although they are less popular than that of the original French. There are not only editions written for students whose first language is the subject, but there are editions for students with a grounding in another language. Students can choose an edition to use their new language to read about the new one. Although the word Bescherelle has the feminine ending -elle, it is a masculine noun in French. There is an iPhone and iPad application named Bescherelle ‐ Le conjugueur, which contains all of the French language verbs and conjugations.

It was published by the two French publishers: Hatier. Official site Open source XML database of French verb conjugation rules

Craig Borten is an American screenwriter. Borten and fellow screenwriter Melisa Wallack were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club. Borten grew up in Pennsylvania, where he attended Plymouth Whitemarsh High School attended Syracuse University in New York and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking. After hearing about Ron Woodroof, the original founder of the "Dallas Buyers Club" for the distribution of unapproved HIV medications, in the early 1990s, interviewing Woodroof in 1992, Borten decided to write a screenplay about Woodroof and his buyers club, he sold the script—titled Dallas Buyers Club—in 1996 with Woody Harrelson attached to play Ron and Dennis Hopper Directing, but shortly afterwards the production company that had bought it dissolved. In 2001, he rewrote the script with Melisa Wallack and they sold it to Universal Studios, with Marc Forster to direct the film and Brad Pitt to star. Again, the production fell through, which Borten described as "a death blow".

In 2009, however and Wallack were able to reclaim their rights to the script and producer Robbie Brenner was able to cast Matthew McConaughey and secure funding for the film's production. The film was released in 2013, more than two decades after Borten met Woodroof, more than 15 years after selling his first version of the script. Dallas Buyers Club received numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Borten's next project is a screenplay titled Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, a biopic about John D. Rockefeller with Lasse Hallström attached as director, and Chapo at Universal with Peter Berg attached to direct. Craig Borten on IMDb