56 Comments
1041
No, but it can also mean:
- "bad lot" (UK)
or
- "bad news"
See:
http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english/mauvais%20garçon
- 245
In the recording it's difficult to tell the difference between 'es' and 'et', so I thought it was one of those phrasal passages like "You and the bad boy"
- 1041
If "et" was used in this sentence, then it would be "Toi et un mauvais garçon" (which means "you and a bad boy").
Since the sentences starts with "Tu", then it has to be followed by the verb "es" ("You are").
Why would it be "toi et un mauvais garcon" rather than "tu et un.."? Also is there a way for me to get the "ç" character on an English keyboard?
- 1041
"tu" is a pronoun that is always a direct subject:
- for example, you must say: "Tu es belle." for "You are beautiful" (You cannot say "Toi es belle").
"Toi" cannot be the direct subject of a verb, but it can strengthen the subject pronoun "tu".
- For example: "Toi, tu es très belle" (but not: "Toi es très belle").
"Toi" can also be used as a subject, but only if it comes with another pronoun.
- For example: "Toi et moi sommes beaux", for "You and I are beautiful".
Ah, of course, that makes perfectly good sense, thank you for your tireless work here answering my (and many others') novice questions.
- 1041
In French, most adjectives are placed after the noun.
Certain adjectives are placed before the noun, some which you can memorize with the acronym "BANGS":
Beauty - Age - Numbers - Good and bad - Size (except for "grand" with people)
These descriptors - and a few others - are considered inherent qualities of the noun: For example "une jolie fille" for "a pretty girl"
Many words describing "qualities" flip the noun-adjective order. That holds for "bon/bonne" (good), but I can't tell you for how many other words.
E.g. (EDIT: note Remy's comment, and why these first two are wrong =P) Wrong: Il est un bon homme. Elle est ma plus chère amie. Not wrong: C'est une maison bleue. (Correctly: C'est un homme bon. C'est ma plus chère amie.)
The exception for 'bon', here, is for describing people, where that word would would mean, specifically, morally good, and not just good as/at/for something, so the word goes post-noun for distinction.
- 1041
You are right but be careful, you have to say:
- "C'est un homme bon." (this is an exception), and
- "C'est ma plus chère amie".
(You have to use "c'est" when there is an article (une, un, le, la, or l') or a possessive (mon/ton/son, ma/ta/sa, notre/votre/leur) before the noun).
Wow, interesting - thanks for the correction. French grammar is so full of nuance. Also, just seeing as you're learning portuguese (and this applies to spanish, I think), you might like to know that it has similar allowance for variation in adjective order. It's often pretty loose, though, with very slight differences (like french - this is a romance lang. thing, I guess), and more common for certain words and situations, although there are general patterns. I was going to give examples, but there are too many and they're seldom strict. =/
bonjour ! can i ask a question? well, how do you differentiate when to use sentence like "une pomme noire" and "un mauvais garcon"..? i mean, sometimes there are adjective+noun and sometimes there are noun+adj.. sorry, i dont understand the explanations above .. could anyone please make it more simple but compact? wee merci beaucoup ! :)
- 1041
Bonjour !
-
"noire" is an adjective of color so it has to be placed after the noun (like most adjectives in French).
-
"mauvais" is an adjective that give information about something being "bad" (see my explanation above about "BANGS" adjectives), so it has to be placed before the noun.
Maybe because of the 'un' preceding mauvais, the initiail 'm' sounds rather like an 'n' so I thought it was 'nouvel', although that doesn't make much sense, eh..
I thought the same thing, but then again, "The black apple" is just as strange (but technically possible in some context) as "The new boy".
why is it es, and not est? It's also pretty impossible to tell the difference in the recording.
Verb conjugation.
Je suis
Tu es
Il est
The rest...
http://leconjugueur.lefigaro.fr/conjugaison/verbe/etre.html
There is no audible difference between "es" and "est". Knowing "tu" or "il"/"elle" etc... will let you know how to spell "es/est".
Hope that helps!
- 1041
You can also hear the liaison between "es" and "un", which sounds like "tu es-Z-un". This helps to know that the verb ends with an "s" (and not with a "t").
- 1041
For a person, "mauvais" means "bad" or "bad person".
"You are a sick boy" would translate to "Tu es un garçon malade."
I see everyone getting naughty vibes from this sentence in the comment section. Am I the only one who thought of Hansel and Gretel? 'You're such an evil little boy.'
I think you mean to say <<oui, je suis un mauvais garçon>>
"Ai" is the "je" conjugation of "avoir" (to have).
so is he bad-ass like me, or just an ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤? it was not very specific about that. i need a good partner, and i need a rule breaker who isn't ALL about blood and murder. someone fun, but not insane. so which type of BAD is he.
Bad boy, bad boy What you gonna do? What you gonna do, when they come for you?
Isn't the word "mauvais" an adjective?why some adj. comes after noun and some before
i am good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! trust me Santa!!!!!!!!!
;)
