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- Topic: French >
- "The boy is reading the menu."
"The boy is reading the menu."
Translation:Le garçon lit le menu.
19 Comments
Nope. "is reading" does not translate word for word in French to mean that an action is in progress.
Therefore if you want to translate the fact that at the present time the action of reading is continuous, you have to use the following French construction: "le garçon est en train de lire".
so shouldn't this be the correct translation, even though it is very advanced? because the sentence literally reads "the boy IS READING the menu", not "the boy reads the menu"
you are right, "le garçon est en train de lire le menu" is actually the best translation for the continuous 'is reading'
No, you cannot (Duo would have listed it as a correct answer, I think)
This is the rule:
In English, to mean that an action is in progress at the time you speak, you use the continuous verbal form, ie verb BE + action verb in the gerund form (-ing).
o he is reading means he currently reads
In French, this verbal form does not exist (directly translated “il est lisant” is incorrect).
Therefore, you can translate either “il lit” or “il est en train de lire”, where the construction verb être + en train de + infinitive correctly expresses the English continuous form.
all verbs are conjugated with different endings according to the subject:
- je lis, tu lis, il/elle/on lit, nous lisons, vous lisez, ils/elles lisent
You can say it, but it would mean "he is reading the menu", not "the boy is reading the menu"
oh really!!!! Le garcon est lecture le menu and the mistake is "est lecture" -_-
l' is an elided definite article.
what it means is that its original form is "le" or "la" but for phonetic reasons, the vowel is removed and replaced by an apostrophe.
elision is prompted by the need to avoid a vowel conflict between the article and the following word.
l' replaces "le" or "la" in front of a word starting with a vowel or a non aspirate H:
-
l'arbre (masculine)
-
l'homme (masculine)
-
l'eau (feminine)
-
l'huile (feminine)
