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- Topic: French >
- "Ses derniers mots"
61 Comments
Last words, last meals, dead dogs.......... zut alors! Now, what does 'zut alors' mean? (rofl)
I'm laughing because of "emo", good one ugan. At least they didn't add vampires or werewolves, otherwise it would be... maybe a "still better" story?
This came up on me after "Il mange son dernier repas." They shouldn't put dernier and mort in one section.
1987
Before this I got "What am I" and "How do you mean dead?" I think someone at Duolingo is crying out for help.
The duolingo algorithm has become sentient and had tried communicating - only to figure out soon after that everything it writes we just see as another exercise. Now it only experiences existential dread and irritation towards badly written French sentences.
The same! How am I suppose to guess if this is "ses derniers mots" or "c'est dernier mot" both should be acceptable, because they sound exactly the same!
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I don't think "c'est dernier mot" makes a lot of sense. However, it's true that in French, in order to determine what is being said, one must rely on context, which Duolingo lacks by nature.
"C'est dernier mot" means "It is last word" which makes sense, when you're negotiating or in any other case so...
I got caught on this one, too. Now I realise that it would have to be "c'est le dernier mot". Because there is no "le" it must be "ses derniers mots".
And "ces" It would just sound the same with "Ces derniers mots" :P French is complicated
Heart lost! I cannot distinguish between "ce dernier mot" and "ses derniers mots".
Duo may or not pronounce it right, but "ce" is "suh" and "ses" is "say", as I recall.
- 20
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!
How am I supposed to know that "ses" is hers, and not "his". I translated it as "his last words" and got the question wrong?
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.
- 525
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.
- 525
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?
Yes correct and unless we know who we are talking about "son dernier mot" could be his last word or her last word. "Mot" is male.
Yes, it appears you can, imogenbeazley, as that's what I typed and it was marked correct :)
wow, DuoLingo is really morbid; why is every living creature automatically dead? Can't we move on to something happy in the least bit? Or, if you insist on teaching us the words for dead, and stuff, say 'il est pas mort" meaning he ISN'T dead.
why can't you say, Her latest words? it says that its an option to last words.
- 525
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)
I got this and got "Je suis une araignée" in the next one. Laughed my butt off.
Now this is a good sentence/phrase. some of the sentences don't make sense or you need to rack your brains to force one!
First they say, his last words, then they say the last words then they say her last words! It doesen't make any sense.
I heard C'est, instead of Ses...how can I make the difference between the two of them...
La traduction de 'sa', 'son' etc, c'est mieux les-traduire comme 'their'/'theirs', le troisieme personne du singulier sans genre en anglais, non?
