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This sounds to me more like a request to clarify which of my roses the other person is talking about. "My roses? Which ones do you mean?" Maybe it's like this common construction: "Moi, j'aime les filles." / "As for me, I like the girls."
You are wrong. "Which are my roses?" is a different meaning. It can happen when you come to the store to take roses that you ordered. So you ask "Which are my roses?".
But if someone comes to you and says "Your roses have wilted, boss!". But you know that you have many different kinds of roses, and perhaps at different locations. So you want to know which of your roses have wilted and so you ask "My roses, which ones?"
If that were the cases then "My roses" would be a rhetorical question/request for confirmation and should have a question mark. It would be a contraction of "My roses have wilted? Which ones?"
It's clear that this translation isn't trying to reference an obscure context such as that one, it's simply a fairly crude literal translation. In almost all contexts "My roses, which ones?" would be viewed as borderline gibberish in English, so I can appreciate why some people have been critical of it here.
Duolingo uses references to obscure context all the time to that is a terrible argument to use here.
This sentence would be considered a comma splice sentence which normally is not allowed, however there are some exceptions. Splices are sometimes acceptable when the clauses are short and alike in form.
In that case it would need an interrogation after roses as in 'My roses? Which ones?' The construction needs two separate sentences. I personally can't think of a construction with only one sentence - at this time anyway. :)
what @mallorydarling said. that is how I perceived and I'm pretty darn sure that is the case.
Actually, we are taking about which few out of all of your roses.
"Put some of your roses in a vase."
"My roses, which ones?"
"The yellow roses, not the red roses."
Here they are attempting to show you the difference between "quelle" and "lesquelles"; "which" and "which ones".
I would disagree with you here. "My roses, which ones?" is not proper English. They are two separate sentences. The first confirming the subject ("My roses.") and the second asking for an elaboration of the subject ("Which ones?") It might also be two questions - the first asking for confirmation of the subject and the second asking for clarification. In that case it should be "My roses? Which ones?" To have a comma separating the two is incorrect. Maybe if they were part of a sentence it would make more sense (If they want some of my roses, which ones?).
This is supposed to mimic conversation, however. I have a feeling "Which of my roses?" could be a better translation.
I would say that "Which of my roses?" might be a correct meaning but it's a different translation.
I disagree. It means the same thing and it doesn't sound awkward like "My roses, which ones," which should be two sentences.
Yes, exactly. The unnaturalness of "My roses, which ones?" has led people to suggest "Which ARE my roses?", and the arguments against that are sound. But none of those arguments work against "Which OF my roses?". And that's much more natural in English.
'quel', 'quelle', 'quels' and 'quelles' are interrogative adjectives, which are used to inquire on something. "Lesquelles" is an interrogative pronoun, like 'lequel', 'duquel' which is used to reference an individual or group.
- "Tu veux quelles chaussures?" - Which shoes do you want?
- "Voici les chaussures, lesquelles tu préferes?" - Here are the shoes, which ones do you want?
The difference in vocabulary is slight in english, but notice that 'lesquelles' references 'chaussures' in the second sentence, while 'quelle' is just there to turn the statement into a question.
My proficiency in french is still rather low, but maybe someone can give a more eloquent explanation.
Ah ha! That totally makes sense to me. It was the Adjective vs Pronoun distinction that did it. So let me see if I can elaborate.
So the essential distinction here is this: quel = Adjective. It modifies a noun. lequel = Pronoun. It REPLACES a noun.
"Quel livre lisez-vous?" - Which book are you reading? "Lequel lisez-vous?" - Which (one) are you reading? -Notice that the noun "livre" is missing in the second sentence. It has been replaced by the pronoun "lequel." The noun is necessary in the first because "quel" is merely an adjective. Floating an adjective without a noun would be like saying "The quick brown jumped over the lazy." Makes no sense at all. It just so happens that in english, the word "which" can be used (even if just colloquially) as either an adjective OR a pronoun.
To make things more interesting, both "quel" and "lequel" must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify/replace, giving us: quel, quelle, quels, quelles and lequel, laquelle, lesquels, and lesquelles.
But hold on, we're not done yet! (This is a romance language, after all.) To complicate things even FURTHER, the masculine and plural pronouns contract with the prepositions "à" and "de", just like the definite articles "le" and "les", like so:
à + lequel = auquel à + lesquels = auxquels à + lesquelles = auxquelles
de + lequel = duquel de + lesquels = desquels de + lesquelles = desquelles
No contraction takes place for "laquelle"
Here are some examples:
"Quel livre lisez-vous?" - Which book are you reading? "Quels livres lisez-vous?" - Which books are you reading? "Quelle chanson aimez-vous?" - Which song do you like? "Quelles chansons aimez-vous?" - Which songs do you like?
"Lequel lisez-vous?" - Which (one) are you reading? "Lequels lisez-vous?" - Which ones are you reading? "Laquel aimez-vous?" - Which (one) do you like? "Laquelles aimez-vous?" - Which ones do you like?
"Auquel allez-vous?" - To which are you going? (less formally, "Which are you going to?") "Auxquels allez-vous?" - To which ones (masc.) are you going? "Auxquelles allez-vous?" - To which ones (fem.) are you going?
"Duquel parlez-vous?" - Of which are you speaking? (Which are you talking about?) "Duquels parlez-vous?" - Of which ones (masc.) are you speaking? (Which ones are you talking about?) "Duquelles parlez-vous?" - Of which ones (fem.) are you speaking?
WHEW! Hope that makes sense to everyone. Did I miss anything? (Besides relative pronouns. That's a ways down the road still.)
Wow, this... this... ima just HAVE to follow you bugbrain_04 this clarafied a lot!
Can 'Lesquelles ?' Be used on its own as a question to mean 'which one?' respond to a question like 'pass me a beer?'
Which are the differences in pronunciation between "Lequel" and "Lesquels" and Laquelle and Lesquelles?
So im listening to this and I hear singular words. Now I dunno if my ears are not fuctioning, but that really threw me off. HOWEVER, if i wrote "Ma rose, lesquelle?" Would this possibly mean "My rose? Which one?" I mean It COULD be proper grammer... anyway, could that work? I mean I'm no french master, but I'm assuming its possible.
The singular of "lesquelles" is "laquelle", not "lesquelle" (which is not a word). But I wonder about "Mes roses, laquelle?" (of many roses, we are talking about one rose).
The two accepted translations are "My roses, which ones?" and "Which are my roses?", but I fail to see how these sentences are equivalent. The former "sentence" (if that's what it is) is very ambiguous and could mean numerous things, including "Which of my roses?"
Can somebody please tell me wht the differece between the thre "lesquelles" are?!?! Thank u!!
OK, I officially don't understand this one at all! According to the result that I got translating from French to English, ‘Which ones OF my roses?’ is wrong, but ‘Which ones ARE my roses?’ is the correction! In light of all of the comments here, how can you possibly justify that?
how can you telll the difference between singular and plural in this? I cannnot tell if it is adding an s at the end of what it says
This is just a literal translation which dont really help you. It needs to be translated into a sentence that we would use in English. There are a lot of these here.
