"Je vais acheter un appareil photo à ma fille."
Translation:I am going to buy a camera for my daughter.
13 Comments
'ma fille' is the indirect object here, thus 'à'. i.e. this sentence actually translates literally as "I'm going to buy my daughter a camera."
the phrase 'i am going to buy a still camera to my daughter' does not make sense in English, I'll pass on to duolingo via usual route.
That's because the translation of the preposition 'à' into English is not one-to-one. 'à' is being used here to mark the indirect object of this sentence. In the context of an indirect object prepositional phrase, English makes distinctions about which preposition to use based on the type of indirect object that French doesn't, therefore in some cases 'à' is translated as 'to' and sometimes 'for'.
Appareil photo means camera...that's weird...I think it should be a kind of photo...
Two questions. 1. Is it a still camera as opposed to a video camera? I'm a native English speaker, and I've never heard the term. 2. What is the meaning of this sentence with the preposition to, and more importantly, with the preposition à? Could somebody please provide an alternate translation?
