"Tu veux un cheval."

Translation: You want a horse.

[fidaaf]

does anyone know how to tell the difference between "veux" and "vois"?

[Arjofocolovi]

• "veux" = want
• "vois" = see

Concerning the sound, here are a few examples, I'm putting the letters responsible for the sound in capitals.

• "veux" sounds like "peu" and the end of "vieux" and "mieux"
• "vEUx" sounds like "pEU" and the end of "viEUx" and "miEUx"

-

• "vois" sounds like "moi" "toi" and "quoi"
• "vOIs" sounds like "mOI" "tOI" and "quOI"

Those two sounds are very different, I don't think you should have much trouble recognizing them after a few lessons.

Here are the pronunciations from native speakers:

http://www.forvo.com/word/vois/#fr

http://www.forvo.com/word/veux/#fr

Don't forget that the "x" is not pronounced at the end of a word in French.

[fidaaf]

here it sounds "vOIs" or am i mistaken because the word "un" following the word "veux"?

[Arjofocolovi]

Yes you are mistaken. I listened to the sentence, and the voice says "veux" correctly.

Maybe you made the mistake, as you said, because of the sound "un" which comes right after it.

You'll see when you get used to the other sound "OI", it's different than what you can hear in this sentence, even with the "un" sound.

If you're having trouble with these, you should at first use the slow audio, then you'll switch back to normal when you'll get more comfortable.

[beilum]

Shouldn't there be liaison? I can't hear any.

[Arjofocolovi]

There is no liaison in this sentence.

[beilum]

So you never have liaison with "veux"?

[Arjofocolovi]

No.

[22gulls]

Does anybody know the difference between un, and une? I'm confused.

[Arjofocolovi]

"un" for masculine nouns, "une" for feminine nouns.

[22gulls]

OK thanks! What's the difference between masculine and feminine?

[Arjofocolovi]

Masculine and feminine are genders. Men are masculine, women are feminine. Many languages, like French, add genders to nouns such as table or glass for example.

• Une table = a table
• Un verre = a glass

[22gulls]

Thank you so much, my french teacher was talking in french so fast that I didn't understand. Thanks again for explaining. How do you know when it's Masculine, and feminine? Or do you have to memorize it.

[Arjofocolovi]

You can't know for sure, you'll have to memorize it, so it's a good habit to memorize the gender the same time as you memorize the noun itself.

Some people argue that there's kind of a rule that nouns ending with "e" are feminine, but there are many exceptions, it's not reliable at all.

[AcceberF]

Why is "You want to have a horse" wrong? Doesn't it say the same?

[thomassmith311]

That would be "tu veux avoir un cheval"

[edores777]

Agree! Some other examples, "he wants cow", "they want dog" may have another meaning, and sounds humorous.
Better would be translate "want to buy", but "want to have" is also good.

[Pam520742]

I feel like swearing! I wrote 'Tu veux un cheval noire' for th previous answer to 'You want a black horse. Marked incorrect. It wanted 'Vous' Now very next it wants me to translate 'Tu veux un cheval' what!!! It is allowed to use the informal 'Tu' version but I am not!!