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- Topic: French >
- "Les chats mangent du riz."
67 Comments
You'd be surprised if you read the ingredients of the average pet foods. There's a lot more grains than most people think. Usually it is corn (at least in the US), but rice can be present too.
not really... it's kind of more... Le = leh Les = lay
and just in case "monu" and "alexas" didn't realize this, "le" is used for singular male nouns (ex: le chat est rouge). and "les" is used for plural male/female nouns (ex: les chats sont rouges. or les chattes sont rouges). "La" is used for singular female nouns (ex: la chatte est rouge). Hope this helps.
The two apparently sound the same. In speech, a French person would know what you're saying due to the words around them. If you're talking about something plural, they'd know you were saying "les" instead of "le" due to the context.
Don't worry about them sounding the same, because they don't need to be pronounced differently in French conversation.
Not exactly true. There is a difference in the pronunciation, but for English speakers it is a bit tricky at first, at these sound very similar to each other (namely e, è and é, and all the variations) The e in "le" is pronounced like the e in "the" "les" is pronounced a bit like "ley" (without the diphtong).
The tricky part comes from the fact that the average French, me included, is going to swallow the word, and make them sound very similar for a non-French. And that Duolingo's speech isn't top of the game, to be fair...
Would "le chat mange du riz" be a homophone for this one, or am I missing something?
"Le" and "Les" do not sound alike. The rest of the sentence would sound the same. If you can't tell the difference between "le" and "les" give it time, it will come to you. It would definitely sound more clear and apparent if you were listening to a live human.
That is because the "s" in "les" is not pronounced! In French, the final "s" is almost never pronounced. It is hard to describe the difference in pronuncation between "le" and "les", but I'll give it a try: "le" is pronounced as "luh", "les" is pronounced as "lèh".
It is. It really all comes down to the conjugation. the root of mange is manger (to eat). So when you conjugate that verb...
je mange (add "e")
I eat
nous mangeons (add "ons") we eat
tu manges (add "es")
you eat (informal)
vous mangez (add "ez") you eat (formal)
il/elle mange (add "e")
he/she eats
ils/elles mangent (add "ent")
they eat (mixed group/all girls)
If you remember this, you should be able to conjugate all regular "-er" verbs.
The cats are eating rice - apart from the one over there with the red boot.
I love the speaking parts. They make me feel smarter than I probably really am.
Cause the particle "du" is like "some" in english, if you say "the cats eat rice" you meaning the cat had eaten ll the rice, but if you tell "some rice", sounds like the cat has eaten a part of the rice, and not the rice at all .. (Sorry if my english its wrong, I'm learning it too)
@Tulio_Oliveira
You don't need to say sorry for your English - I wish my French was as good as your English - more practice and you will be good.
You are right - the article "du" is like "some". So we know the cats are eating some rice but we don't know how much. It might be a lot of rice, it might be a little - we don't know so we can just say "the cats eat some rice".
But in English we don't have to put "some" into this sentence. We can just say - "the cats eat rice". Both are correct - they mean the same thing.
So "les chats mangent du riz" can be written as:-
"The cats eat some rice" or "The cats eat rice".
The reason for this is complicated - even some English speakers get this wrong. The reason is that English does not have a proper equivalent of "du". So we don't need to put any article there. But some people want to put something there - so they can use "some" if they like. Really "some" is a pretend "du" that we can use if we want to.
why is "les chattes mangent du riz" incorrect? What's the giveaway that the cats are male?
@HenryMcCab
"Chatte" is specifically a female cat however "chat" is not specifically a male cat - it just means "cat".
So if we don't know the gender of the cat it is "chat". In fact even if we know that the cat is female we still use "chat" unless we have a reason to emphasise the gender. So a French cat breeder might advertise that she has "une chatte" for sale because gender is important in that situation but ordinarily a cat that is female is still just "un chat".
it's the verb "to eat" that drives me crazy. Is there any way to remember it and then to not forget it?
In spoken french what is the difference in sound between, "Le chat mange du riz" and "Les chats mangent du riz".
Won't that cause confusions?
The cats eat rice!! The cats eat rice!! who would do such an out rage to cat kind
Does anyone know why du is in front of pain in this example, as well as in others. When is 'du' supposed to be used?
du is used to say "some of something". Versus saying "the bread" you would write "some bread" (the bread is "le pain").
I wish I could say there is an easy way to pronunciation. But there isn't. You kind of just have to learn it by practicing. Try repeating what the audio is saying when they ask you a question. It might help.
If I was in France, and if I said "Les chats mangent riz", would people there be confused or annoyed at all if I didn't include "du"?
876
I couldn't hear the difference between this and the singular! I remember why I chose Spanish instead...
Yeah. Spanish is so much easier to understand.
EDIT: This is not supposed to be sarcastic.
All I heard from the audio was "le chat mange du riz". How do I identify plurals when they sound singular?
"Les chats" seems to sound just like "Le chat" :/ How am I supposed to know which one is being spoken to me?
this is a grammatical form which we cal ADJECTIF PARTITIF.. in French we know we are NOT eating all the rice of this world, which would be the case if we would say LES CHATS MANGENT LE RIZ. they are only eating PART of the world's rice. Therefore we use the PARTITIVE ADJECTIVE DU, DE LA. THE CATS EAT MEAT = LES CHATS MANGENT DE LA VIANDE because viande is feminine. THE CATS EAT RICE = LES CHATS MANGENT DU RIZ because riz is masculine in french. ( we cannot say mangent DE LE riz,, it has to be contracted in DU) in feminine DE LA doesn't need to be contracted. it stays like that.
it is not a necessity to use SOME in english. but it is an ABSOLUTE necessity to use DU ( or DE LA in feminine) in French..We will understand you if you don't say it correctly, though.. Remember that leaning languages means you are going to make mistakes. IT DOESN'T MATTER AT ALL.. Hoe is a yioung child learning his mother-tongue ? by listening and imitating. He makes mistakes, he doesn't know any grammar. Grammar will vome when he enters school. BUT HE CAN SPEAK. It is the same with us when we are learning new languages. I speak, write, and read very fluently French ( my mother tongue), German, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.. I also speak very fluently Swiss German ( Alamanish). But I am not Shakespeare, Goethe, Cervantes, Camoens, Dante. so I will always make mistakes. WHO CARES ? Are you afraid that some stupid \Have anice day and keepstudying will make fun of you because you don't pronounce 100% correctly their language ? Well, my friends, remember one thing : if this happens then ask that person : do YOU speak MY language ? you will see the reaction. Have fun and keep studying MY language, like i have studied YOURS. Nothing is impossible in this world. It is as you say in english : WHERE THERE IS A`WILL, THERE IS A WAY.
