"Which one is dying?"
Translation:Laquelle meurt ?
33 Comments
Could Duolingo make an inclusion of reference to "littéraire" or "soutenu" (/"argot"/etc.), when appropriate, as some of the questions I see are in my experience rather uncommon and certainly not common (nevermind colloquial) French?
"Mourant" is the present participle form of "mourir". It's generally an adjective (un homme mourant = a dying man), but in French, you can just use "mourant" as a noun, too: un mourant = a dying (entity). So I guess "Lequel est le mourant?" would be "Which is the dying one?"
Caveat: I am not a native speaker of French. Francophones please correct or confirm.
Why did Duolingo include that when the use of present participles hasn't been covered yet? :(
"mourant, mourante" is an adjective.
"en mourant" would be present participle
"un mourant, une mourante" are nouns.
Where did you see it? Some of these discussion threads are attached to more than one version of the lesson - French-to-English, English-to-French, audio, multiple choice... I got here from an English-to-French translation, no sign of the word "mourant".
It occurs to me, though, that you might have seen it in a multiple choice? Especially since I don't think "Lequel est mourant" is actually a correct sentence. Some of the "wrong" choices on those lessons are just gibberish.
I saw it in a multiple choice question. It's kinda disheartening that I got wrong over something duolingo didn't teach yet. Luckily, I still had hearts at the time. Thanks for replying. :D
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I agree. I have lost quite a few hearts due to these words Duolingo suddenly throws in without any previous knowledge of them...
Just to clarify icybreeze9, the phrase is marked as correct in a multiple choice.
It annoys you a little bit, but makes you think an extra time at every multiple choice if any of the other choices MAY make sense. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't, but I promise that you remember it the next time. When that is the case, congratulate yourself on beating the "nastiness" of Duolingo and feel proud of your progress in French.
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Can "meurt" be used with or without "se"? Or are there specific circumstances in which you would use "se" and others in which you wouldn't use "se"?
"Il se meurt" sounds literary to me. We rather say: "il est en train de mourir", for the (continuous) present tense (= he is dying).
For generalities, like "100 persons die of cancer every year", you will say "100 personnes meurent du cancer chaque année".
For other tenses, you may hear/read: "il est mort l'an dernier" (he died last year) or "il mourra dans son lit" (he will die in his bed).
You need a verb. "Mort" is an adjective. It would be like saying in English, "Which one dead?'
That translation sounds clunky to me. I would say "Lequel est en train de mourir?"
To make things not too sad, I propose the following interpretation:
- remember we planted 3 trees in the park?
- yes, I do
- now one is very sick, actually it is dying
- which one is dying?
- the one next to the wall.
Haha, I was going to post a story about pet rabbits, so perhaps good thing you beat me to it.
because "lequel" means "which one" - in only one word. It is an interrogative pronoun, so it works like "who" and you can use the verb directly after "lequel" of which it is the subject.
the form "lequel on mange" for example, does exist, but in this case, the verb is transitive (accepts a direct object), which is "lequel", while the subject is "on". And the translation is "which one does one eat?" (word for word)
How do you know whether to use lequel or laquelle? Can you use either here? Seeing how we do not know the context of what we are referring to?
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Il meurt = he is dying. Is is contained in the verb meurt. Il boit = he is drinking. Is is contained in the verb boit.
Lequel is a pronoun as is Il. They are treated the same.
Lequel est mort ?
"mort" is the past participle of verb "mourir" and an adjective.
"meurt" is only 3rd person singular, indicative present of verb "mourir".
My answer 'lequel est meurt' was wrong, which I understand. However, Duolingo corrected it to 'Lequel se meurt'. I haven't the foggiest on what 'se' means and how it is used in this sentence. Any help?
"il se meurt" is a literary way of saying "he is dying", where "se" is a reflexive pronoun used to mean that he is "in the process of dying", like "il est en train de mourir", which is far more frequent.
