49 Comments
I don't hear the different between "un chat" and "une chatte." What should I be listening for?
Chat is pronunced without a T sound, (Sha) while chatte has a T sound (chatte)
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For starters listen for the article. Un and une are very distinct from each other.They tell you the number and gender of the noun they are attached to.
As northernguy said there are the articles. But also :
- in "chat" the final "t" is not pronounced
- in "chatte" you have the final [t] sound
FYI : "un chat" con also be a 'chat room' but in this case the final "t" is pronounced AND the "ch" is pronounced as "tch".
as northernguy said, "un" and "une" sound different. "un" sound a bit like "Ann" while "une" is kind of "yun". hope you got the point :D
you never hear the N in "un", unless it is placed in front of a word starting with a vowel sound.
i gave a very detailed answer ' we have a male cat and a male dog' and it said i was wrong. this is pretty upsetting
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You gave more details than the phrase provided.
"In a room full of female cats (or dogs etc.) if one of them is male then you must use the masculine gender".
I have said this before but, even though it has been disputed by knowledgeable commenters on this board, I will say it again. Duo (if not French) assumes the masculine gender unless it is indicated that feminine is required. If you have the option of using either gender because there is no specific rule governing which gender should be applied then use the masculine because that is what Duo does.
That means when Duo uses the masculine form of chien or chat that means only that the dog or cat etc. was not known to be female and thus feminine was not specifically required. It does -not- mean that they were male. Only that they were not known to be female.
You said they were specifically male which indicated that you believe that the use of the masculine form requires that the dog and cat be male, so they marked you wrong.
Duo uses gender and marks on the basis that since there are only the masculine and feminine genders, one of those has to take on the role of unknown gender. Duo has assigned the role of mixed or unknown gender to masculine. (I believe this to be true of French as well but native French speakers have posted that this is not true, at least where they live.)
To keep your hearts with Duo:
le/ les chien/s ..... (male, mixed, unknown) dog/s
la/ les chienne/s ....(female) dog/s
"We have a cat and dog" is perfectly acceptable in some english-speaking regions.
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In English, articles are routinely dropped if they are not required to make sense of a statement. This is not true in many languages and especially French.
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verbs may vary in languages, but why should we "copy" them word by word rather than just translate it and filter the words?
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Add some words, leave out some words, who cares as long as the meaning is more or less what the original sentence says.
Unless you are assessing whether a student can accurately translate words that are given to him.
could you write 'nous avons un chat et chien' as both are objects are male?
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special_moi
There is the whole issue of French nouns requiring a modifier in most circumstances. Your otherwise reasonable sentence leaves out an article for chien. Hence the presence of un in the correct answer.
Because the first plural person conjugation of avoir in indicative present tense is like that.
Conjugation of verb "avoir": j'ai, tu as, il/elle/on a, nous avons, vous avez (polite singular or plural), ils/elles ont
So does "et" not follow the typical rule of pronouncing the consonant if there's a vowel sound after it?
We have a dog and a cat vs. we have a cat and a dog? Surely both are acceptable translations?
Why switching the objects? remember that a computer is checking on your answers, so you may not expect it to be that smart!
When both are given as multiple choice answers, and it states "multiple answers may be correct," it's confusing to mark one wrong. If I was translating the sentence, I'd write "We have a cat and a dog," but "We have a dog and a cat" is still a valid translation of the sentence ... right? Is this silly? I can't tell.
Even if it were a human grader, how would they know if you knew which is which unless you directly translated it
In real life, you are perfectly right, when expressing your thoughts you have all freedom to list cat then dog or the opposite. But here, you have to be rather disciplined and do what you are told...
It is, but, unless it is stated that the cat is a female cat, the supossition is that we are talking about a male cat.
Earlier I had a sentence with une chatte, which I could translate into 'female cat'... apparently I can't translate un chat into 'male cat'
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As mentioned above, une chatte is specifically a female cat. Un chat may or may not be a male cat.
why is it "et A un chien"? why does the a need to be there, wouldn't saying "un chat et un chien" mean a cat and a dog?
You use "un chat" as the generic name of the species or when you don't know about the animal's gender.
Can't figure out the difference between the prounciation of "chat" and "chien".
@Archie I don't think you should. That's the difference between chien and cheinne. @OP I have a tough time with it too, but if you listen close chat is "shah" and chien is "shie-eh"
Not quite chat can also be used for any cat regardless of gender. Chatte is used when you specifically want to clarify that it is a female cat.
