"The food is bad."
Translation:La nourriture est mauvaise.
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I don't undersant the difference between "nourriture" and "repas". Could you help me?
la nourriture = food (in general) le repas = meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper)
Ok - repas is very close to food in this context - I see and accept the distinction
Merci beaucoup de vos explications, mais mes collègues Anglais et Américains utilisent le mot "food" come "le repas" tous les temps et je ne les ai entendu jamais ou très rarement disent "meal" dans ce contexte. Même que mes collègues Français ne disent pas "la nourriture", ils disent "le repas". Bien sûr je peux avoir tort, je crois que vous le savez mieux, je dis justement que ce sont mes observations.
The tips I give here are meant to help learners save hearts, as I have no power on the program itself. However, you are perfectly right in your observations. The whole issue is the relation to food in different cultures. In France, as you know well, we don't eat to get fed but to have pleasure and share with others. That is one of the reasons why we hardly ever use "nourriture" (which belongs to "survival"). Last week, I saw "Ratatouille" on TV, in English, with French subtitles. As I expected, the word "food" was used many times in the original version, but not once in the translation. We have to bear with it on Duolingo, since we are expected to remain as close as possible to the original version, whichever it is, and use the closest word in the translation. Only in Immersion can we "adapt" what is proposed to what we believe works best in the other language.
My suggested correction was to replace repas with aliments. How does this meaning compare with nouriture?
Food is generally translated to "la nourriture" but we don't use that word as often as "food" is in English.
So, depending on context, you may hear "les aliments" which are individual pieces of "alimentation" in situations like: "les aliments sucrés ou gras doivent être consommés en petite quantité", ie as countable units of "food".
We often use "un plat", "un repas", "un déjeuner/dîner" or "la cuisine" when English speakers use "food", depending on context.
Actually, the best equivalent to "food" is: "la bouffe" - but it is too colloquial to be proposed as a "correct" translation.
In immersive usage, would it be incorrect to say la nourriture est mal? When is mal used in relation to when mauvais is used?
NO, we just don't use adverb "mal" as an adjective with verb être.
