24 Comments
Could a native speaker weigh in on whether this makes any sense in French? In English (to me, anyway) it's doubtful at best: "front" or "side" but no "front side".
I am not a native French speaker but lived there quite a while and côté avant would definitely be used to refer to the front of a house for instance
Thanks. I see that if I think of "côté avant" as meaning "front" I'll do okay.
Yes, but do not translate the sentence as "This is the front," unless you wish to lose a heart. It is not accepted.
It is what it means! But back when I made that comment, Duo wanted "This is the front side" and did not accept simply "This is the front." A lot of improvements have been made since then, and maybe it is accepted now.
This definitely makes sense in English, or at least I hear it a lot (northeast USA) front side, back side, left side. . .
Surprising but Interesting. In the UK I have never heard the 'front side' being used. Nor would 'back side' ever be used unless the space was omitted. 'Backside' I have indeed heard, but only to describe a part of human anatomy.
But it could be inferred, like 'which side of the house do you want me to paint first? The front?'
1717
Yes, that can work. The issue here is that "le côte avant" really is "the front side". The French also use the noun "l'avant" as "the front" of something, e.g., L'avant de sa voiture a touché l'arrière du bus. http://www.wordreference.com/fren/avant Remember that a lot of Duolingo's exercises are just that, exercises put together to expose learners to how words are used and not to portray it as the only way the idea would be expressed.
- 1717
It's perfectly fine in French and fine in English. It may be a choking point for some that "front" means one thing and "side" means something else, i.e., since it is the "side", how could it possibly be the front? N'est-ce pas ? When we apply absolutes to such discussions, we may forget to take on a perspective that considers there are other contexts which are not just possible, but quite natural, even if we don't use it ourselves. In English, we would indeed just say "front" without saying "side" but it is certainly not wrong to include it.
But it doesn't come naturally so I lose a heart as I wouldn't say it in English
Talking about an object, you can say:
- Le côté avant
- Le côté arrière
- Le côté gauche
- Le côté droit
"Nous nous sommes placés du côté avant du bâteau."
/ or /
"Nous nous sommes placés à l'avant du bâteau." (which is a little more natural)
Thank you, for that. Big help. I am headed to Paris for a month, and these are useful tidbits.
I thought avant was used when meaning before in time and devant when meaning a physical place?
why has it been 3 years and yet no one has replied to this?! everywhere I look online seems to agree that avant is temporal and devant is positional..
"Front side" is not said and."back side" means "buttocks"... in England English.
It's clearly different in the US, but in the UK a house ( or anything squarish, like a desk) has a front, a back, a left side and a right side.
The "front side" is not said in Britain. I tried "front edge" and was "incorrect". Using "at the front" or "in the front" should work.
