"La fille lave sa robe."
Translation:The girl is washing her dress.
31 Comments
Why is the first answer not also correct? "sa" could technically be "his" or "her" since the gender is only reflective of the noun it represents--right?
- 10
- 6
- 5
You're right. This sentence could translate as either "she's washing her dress" or "she's washing his dress". We don't want to be judgmental here and assume that a man can't own a dress.
- 20
- 18
I am french and if I said that, that's mean "her dress" other wise I said "La fille lave la robe de l'homme (de son frère, du garçon....) If you say this sentence without aother precision, all french undersand "her own dress".
- 25
- 10
- 2
Is that also the case, when a woman says it while she is pointing at, for example, her husband?
- 15
- 3
@Stefjager. La femme lave la robe de son mari = the woman washes her husband's dress.
- 16
- 14
- 12
- 11
i once heard the idiom: blood washes, fire cleans. in everydays language you should be able to say clean.
- 15
- 3
Hmmm. I think DL may shy from that as it can imply cross-dressing. It is OK I suppose for specifics like military uniform and evening dress but he's a hard man that gets a girl to wash them.
- 10
- 4
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 2
In french, since sa=him/her, people just assume it means her in sentences like these, because that makes the most sense. So theyre just assimilating you, and not being anti-cross dressers.
sa is used when the gender of the object is feminine and son is used when the gender is male, as in robe is a female so thats why sa robe is used, e.g the girl is washing her clothes.
- 15
- 3
Well, it is indeed in practise Meoww, but not in language. She cleans her dress= Elle nettoie sa robe. Beware, French is very specific.
- 20
- 18
Yes. In french 'nettoyer' is not necessary with water but 'laver' is necessary with water.
Guys you need to fix the problem! The word "robe" was so so after the all sentence you need to make this faster. Pleace fix it.
- 15
- 3
Well, I'm not 100% but I've researched this while awaiting an answer like your self and I think you're looking for "She washes This/That dress" and I suspect that Ca (with accent) would translate to "It". La fille lave CETTE robe I suspect is The girl washes This/That dress. Of course this won't do because it sounds nothing like "Sa".
- 20
- 18
You are right. Ça is a demonstrative prononous. Exemple "what this. That, it is a dress" (qu'est-ce que c'est, ça, c'est une robe). In this sentance you can't use ça. Ça has the same meaning that cela in french.
- 16
- 14
- 11
- 9
- 7
- 1106
No, because "fille" does not mean "daughter" when "a" or "the" stands before it. It only becomes "daughter" when a possessive stands before it.
A girl - Une fille
The girl - La fille
My daughter - Ma fille
Your daughter - Ta fille
His/her daughter - Sa fille
Our daughter - Notre fille
Hope that helps.
- 20
- 18
Exactely, and don't forget The Jhon's daughter = la fille de Jhon. And "La fille de Paris" = "the girl from Paris"
- 16
- 14
- 11
- 9
- 7
- 1106
That is true. I completely forgot about that. It was not until I logged out that I realised that something was missing from the post I made (namely that one).
