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- "The brown cat is eating the …
"The brown cat is eating the red meat."
Translation:Le chat marron mange la viande rouge.
41 Comments
Maybe it's a specific piece of red meat, instead of just the substance in general, which would require 'de'.
May be it is, but le chat marron mange de la viande rouge would translate the same, won't it?
I may be wrong, but I believe "le chat marron mange de la vianda rouge" would translate as "the brown cat is eating SOME red meat" or simply "the brown cat is eating red meat".
As bisousethiboux pointed out, when you say "THE red meat", it refers to specific piece of red meat, as in the red meat on the floor or the red meat on the table.
It certainly is a specific piece of meat, we know that because of "the" in "the red meat". That's why we have to use "la viande rouge".
If we were talking about the same cat eating red meat in general, because it just likes this kind of meat, we would not have "the" before "red meat". And then, in French, we would say "de la viande rouge".
The adjective "marron" never changes its spelling, not even for plurals. Other adjectives, usually colors, that are based on objects also never change their spelling. (Orange & rose are two other examples of this, and the abbreviation "sympa" does not change, although "sympathique" can add an s)
I'm very certain I've seen them write "roses" for pink (plural) here on Duolingo. About.com confirms: http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_colors.htm
How do you know when the adjective comes before the noun and when it comes after? le marron chien or le chien marron??
As a general rule the adjective always comes after. B.A.N.G.S are the exception.
Beauty (joli)
Age (jeune)
Newness (nouveau)
Goodness/Bad (mauvais)
Size (grand)
http://hestia.hubpages.com/hub/French-adjectives-which-precede-the-noun
N is actually numbers not If it's new or not. New or old would fall under age
It has something to do with grammar way in the future. My mom speaks French and told me this. It has something to do with adding other articles.
I was going to say La chatte marron, but I don't know the feminine version of marron. Do you just add on another e, or does it stay the same?
Again, colors do not have feminine or masculine versions. They do have plural versions. When you add an 'e' at the end you would do it to make it plural.
Does 'brun' mean brown? If so, why isn't it one of the correct options?
'brun' is brown in Spanish, but 'marron' is brown in French. It is confusing, but 'brun' is not brown in French.
Actually "brun" can also mean "brown" in French, and would also change to "brune" with a femine noun
But my dictionary gives brown for brun and Duolingo was happy too. Is 'marron' more about the actual colour brown?
In the present tense of French there is only one correct conjugation, but in English there are multiple.
«Il mange» can mean He eats He is eating
«il est mange» Would be like saying He is eats He is is eating
That was my question too. So to clarify, in this sentence, mange includes the 'is"?
Why does duo always suggest marron and not brun as the translation for brown ?
Again, 'brun' is brown in Spanish, not French. French is 'marron'. Why does everyone ask that question? :)
Erm - because "brun" IS brown in French (as well as spanish) http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/brun I think the difference is that brun in French French is reserved for hair / fur colour whereas marron is brown objects that aren't hair. In Canadian French, I believe that brun is used much more commonly and when I was at school in England, we were taught brun as brown and not marron (probably a lazy teacher).
For example, on this site: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_2.htm
This is deemed correct: Nous avons mangé de la glace.
Oh oops. I miss read la chat as le chat and was so confused why there were two identical sentences.
I accidently put the instead if le in the short cut cause im fluent in french thw aop jist doesnt know it
Earlier, it said that marron was brown, and I entered it for this one, but it said that the word brun meant brown. Is there a certain word for different sentences?
