"Tu es une fille."
Translation:You are a girl.
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In French, you have to pronounce liaisons between 2 words, when the first on ends with a consonant (ex: "es") and the second one starts with a vowel (ex: "une") or a "mute H" (ex: "honnête" which means "honest").
For example:
- "Tu es une fille" (You are a girl) sounds like "Tu es-Z-une fille".
- "C'est une fille" (She is a girl) sounds like "C'est-T-une fille".
- "Elle est honnête" (She is honest) sounds like "Elle est-T-honnête".
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It is my understanding that a liaison is never made with 'es' - the second person singular of the verb 'être'. Therefore, the pronunciation of 'Tu es une fille' is incorrect if the Duolingo robot is pronouncing the 's'. I cannot pull it up at this time to listen. I have never heard it used in a liaison. If I am incorrect, please send some audio examples other than Duolingo. Thank you! You can check the website french.about.com. The other French word that is never used in a liaison is 'et' meaning 'and' in English.
you mean "et" =and? Yes, it's an exception to the liaison rules, "et" doesn't like to enter in a liaison. If you say: "Jean et Alice", there's no liaison between the "t" and the Alice's "a". It's for euphonic reasons. It's an exception, because, in French, the more liaisons, the better, only very very few exceptions.
In French, you can use two different pronouns for the second person singular:
- "tu": which is informal (for example if you talk to a child or to a person that you know)
- "vous": which is formal (for example if you talk to an adult or to a person that you do not know)
So you can say "tu es une fille" and "vous êtes une fille", but the first one will be more commonly used, since "une fille" refers to a child.
"tu" is not weird. Vous is plural if you talk to several person, or singular if you want to be polite with someone. Tu es une fille: you are a girl (singular) Vous êtes une fille: you are a girl (singular, polite) Vous êtes des filles: you are girls (plural) and even: Vous êtes des filles: you are girls (plural, polite), but there's no difference between the 2 last forms.
A 10 y.o girl is still: "une enfant", as a 10 y.o boy is: "un enfant". Yes, "tu es une fille" can be used for a little girl (you can say: "tu es une petite fille" if you want to be more specific) or for a 18 y.o girl. For a 25 (I say any age, I don't know where is the limit), so, for a 25 y.o female, we would rather say: "tu es une femme", but we can use "tu es une femme" for the 18 y.o female too. It depends who speak, the context, etc...