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- Topic: French >
- "Il parle anglais."
31 Comments
could any of the moderators give me some insight here: why il parle l'anglais is incorrect?
1777
My understanding is that the definite article is required for language nouns, except with "parler", in which case it is optional (and most commonly dropped). So Duo should accept "Il parle anglais" or "Il parle l'anglais".
- 1777
If the pronoun were "tu" (vs. "il"): the second person singular conjugation of "parler" is "parles".
I had the EXACT correct answer and it marked it as wrong. I have been getting this a LOT lately. Sometimes the answer did not have an accent mark or a circonflex, but the remarks used to come back as correct (but remember to pay attention them). Now it just marks the answer as wrong. I do not know how to add those diacritical marks. This is getting REALLY frustrating. I have to quit the lesson as it just keeps going in an endless loop until you get the answer correct. There is no way to get the correct answer in these situations.
I only started duolingo because i was new to the language i was learning but as i did it i learned it was not about winning it is all about learning and having fun
From what I can tell, you can say choose to use or omit articles with languages. I think both are correct (I hear both, though in the region where I live, hearing something a lot is NO guarantee that it's proper French).
Can someone tell me what "petit ami" and "petite amie" mean? I see it at the lesson intro, but those word does not appear here.
Boyfriend and girlfriend. I understood « ma petite » or even « ma petite chou » to be "terms of endearment" before this lesson. It was a bit confusing to see « ma copine » show up during the lesson, even then.
Everytime I get one of these listening ones when I can't use my headphones there seems to be no option to skip?
- 1777
With a second person, singular subject ("tu parles").
You need to memorize the conjugations of (at least) the regular -er verbs: je parle, tu parles, il/elle/on parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent.
The root is found by dropping the "er" ("parler" -> "parl") and then you add the endings "e" / "es" / "e" / "ons" / "ez" / "ent" based on the subject.
- 1777
They sound exactly the same; perhaps Duo did this to avoid the homophone problem with the listening form of the exercise. Unusual.
- 149
Okay I am struggling with a frw things, like why does Parle sometimes have an s on the end and sometimes doesn't?! Also, how the heck are you supposed to know what objects are considered feminine and masculine before doing the tests?
- 1777
You have to conjugate a verb to match its subject. There is a lot of information about this key skill; try an Internet search for "French verb conjugation". "parler" is a regular "-er" verb (the most common kind), so it follows a standard set of rules. You can find the conjugation in an online dictionary, such as at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/conjugation/parler. In the present tense, it is "parle" if the subject is first person or third person singular, and "parles" for second person singular.
As for gender, you just need to memorize these -- when you learn a new noun, also learn its gender. Once again, I suggest you seek out information on the Internet.
- 1777
They sound identical. "parle" is used with 1st and 3rd person singular (je and ils/elles), whereas "parles" is used with 2nd person singular (tu). In this sentence, since the subject is "il" ("he"), we know it must be "parle". Some cases may be ambiguous or need further context.
