"Ses derniers mots"
Translation:His last words
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Before this I got "What am I" and "How do you mean dead?" I think someone at Duolingo is crying out for help.
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Some adjectives have both a figurative and an analytic (literal) sense and can thus, be placed on either side of the noun. When the adjective is figurative, it goes before the noun, and when it's analytic, it goes after the noun.
Figurative: un grand homme a great man Literal: un homme grand a tall man
Figurative: mon ancienne école my old (former) school Literal: mon école ancienne my old (aged) school
Figurative: C'est ma dernière année (final ear) à l'université.
Literal: L'année dernière (last year) nous sommes allés à la France.
but the DuoLingo program is not programmed to accept "FINAL words" as correct!
There is no way to distinguish his from hers in french. If there is a man and a woman walking a dog, you can say, "c'est son chien," but that just says it's a dog that belongs to a singular third person. You would have to say, "C'est le chien de Jean-Michel," ou, "C'est le chien de Marie-Claude," to tell me whose dog it actually is. TRÉS confusing at first, but it gets a little easier as you go along. A little, haha.
Is this correct? As we are talking about plural words, we need to use the plural for your-singular, being "ses". If we were talking about a singular word, we would then say: "Son dernier mot", or "Sa dernier mot" . Could someone please confirm if the penny has finally dropped for me on this issue. Thank you.
Hi Linda Ses derniers mots = his last words (plural) son dernier mot = his last word (singular). You can not say "sa dernier mot" because the word "mot"is masculine. You can say "sa dernière demeure" his last place of residence as "demeure" is feminine. AND as someone has staed earlier in French you can't tell f "ses derniers mots" means "his last words" or "her last words". You need to have the full context ..... same goes for the singular.
So, if you see / hear, "Son dernier mot". which is loosely translated as 'his last word', it does not tell you that the speaker of the word is a man, but that the word 'mot' is a male noun. So regardless of whether a man or a woman says just one last word, then you say "Son dernier mot". Have I understood it correctly?
It is because when there are more than one word, you need to use the plural - "ses", - that is the plural for a singular 'you'.. (son - male pronoun for singular you; sa - female pronoun for singular you; ses - pronoun for singular you when it is referring to a noun that is plural <more than one>) The word "mots" is : "words". So the action for speak must be plural, being "derniers", and the pronoun for the singular you must also be plural - being "ses". To follow that: If only one word is said - then even if it is a female who says that word you must say "Son dernier mot", as the pronoun must match the male noun "le mot'. So "Son dernier mot" does not tell you that the speaker is a male, but that the noun "mot" is a male tense. The only correct way to say "Her last word" is "Son dernier mot". The same rules apply for female nouns. If the noun is a female noun, and is in the singular tense, then you must use "sa" when in that sentence, regardless of it relates to a male who is acting-on/relating-to the noun. I hope that helps. (ps - I just worked this out yesterday)