101 Comments
"Lequel" HAS MANY DIFFERENT FORMS, based on number and gender. Lequel is masculine singular, laquelle is feminine singular, lesquels is masculine plural, and lesquelles is feminine plural. This pronoun is one of the hardest to remember in French, no wonder you're confused! Hope this helps!
But this doesn't really answer why it can't be "J'aime lequel?" because I can ask this question both as a man or as a woman, so that you can use both "lequel" and "laquelle" in this context, right? And if not, what's the reason?
"laquelle" or "lequel" can translate "which one".
The subject of the verb "aime" can be a man or a woman, the question is about the object "which one", that can be masculine or feminine.
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il y a un choix de couleurs (feminine); j'aime laquelle ?
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il y a un choix de chapeaux (masculine); j'aime lequel ?
why isn't it "des couleurs" since the "couleurs" is pl. and then, shouldn't the "laquelle" become "lesquelles"? Since you are referring to a number of colours?
776
Lequel and laquelle refer to the singular choice not the plural colors (in this example)
Regarding "des couleurs", I think that here "..un choix de des couleurs" is contracted to "..un choix de couleurs", as usually when we have "de des" = "de" ("des" gets omitted)
Sitesurf, I am struggling, even with your example, how we could know which form (M or F) to use. J'aime lequel? or J'aime laquelle? if you don't know the subject. Does one simply use the Masc if the object is unknown?
In real life, context will tell if it is about a masculine or a feminine subject.
In this exercise, you cannot guess that "which one" refers to masc of fem, that is why Duo accepts as valid "laquelle" and "lequel".
Same story with plural: "which ones" = "lesquels" (masc) or "lesquelles" (fem).
"laquel" is not a French word.
Basically, lequel, laquelle... mean the-which.
Therefore each of these pronouns has its gender and number characteristics:
- lequel = masc sing
- laquelle = fem sing
- lesquels = masc plur
- lesquelles = fem plur
Then how about lequels, laquelles, lesquels and lesquelles? (if I remember wrong and haven't seen these before, I apologise!
masc sing = lequel
masc plural = lesquels
fem sing = laquelle
fem plural = lesquelles
Look at it: lequel = le+quel, both masculine and singular (the same applies to la-quelle, les-quels, les-quelles)
Even after all the discussion on here, I still don't understand why it has to be "J'aime laquelle" and not "J'aime lequel". It seems like since the subject is unknown, masculine should work. Am I missing something here, or does duo just not accept a valid translation?
If you get this sentence in dictation ("type what you hear"), "j'aime lequel" is not an option:
- laquelle = [lah-kel]
- lequel = [luh-kel]
With any other exercise and from English to French, "which one?" can translate to "j'aime lequel ?" or "j'aime laquelle ?".
Got it. So it's not that the translation is invalid, so much as that there should be an audible difference between the words. Thank you.
- 257
Duolingo insisted i answer "I like which one?" which is horrible English. No one would say that. I will flag
If it can comfort you "j'aime laquelle" is horrible French as well.
But you can hear it...
The correct interrogative form is "quelle est celle que j'aime ?" (which/who is the one I love?)
It now accepts "Which one do I like?" 24/11/14. You know what is funny about this sentence? Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness ;)
- 278
except when they would. imagine someone being teased that they like a particularly ugly item of clothing at the store. they reply indredulously and indignantly, "i like WHICH one?"
- 534
this is absolutely something someone might say. too bad DL no longer accepts it!
Yes, in fact I think I'd more frequently say "I like WHICH one?" incredulously than "Which one do I like?" I'm more likely to say it in disbelief to someone suggesting I like something than to earnestly ask someone what my own thoughts are...if that makes sense.
It seems that you are asking two questions at the same time, here.
"do I like...?" and "which one... ?"
I'm afraid you would have to choose: "do I like this?" or "which one do I like?" (the latter is the correct translation).
- 1722
The syntax is quite awkward in English. "Which one do I like?" is natural, however.
That is the most formal expression, but it needs a tiny change: "laquelle aimé-je ?" with an acute accent on the -e ending of aime, so that it is "pronounceable". However, this form is not very much in use (because of the sound of it, I suspect), so we generally use either the standard form: "laquelle est-ce que j'aime ?" or the casual form: "laquelle j'aime ?" or "j'aime laquelle ?".
Could you explain it more? I confused with the question in French. It is quite difference sequence from English, I thought.
- 91
(This is what my teacher taught me about posing a question in French):
There are 3 ways we can use to ask a question. For example, you want to ask "Is he a boy?": 1. Est-il un garçon? Simply like English. 2. Il est un garçon? This is less formal and is often used while speaking. It's like asking "He is a boy?" in English. Notice the difference in intonation. 3. Est-ce qu'il est un garçon? Now, this is the sentence #2 with "est-ce que" at the beginning. According to my teacher, the French add this to the question in order to "make sure" that it IS a question. Moreover, when you use "est-ce que", you don't have to switch the position of "il" and "est", so it does not require a lot of thinking of how to pose the question when you choose to ask this way.
Is he a boy? =
- formal question: Est-ce un garçon [space]?
- informal question: C'est un garcon [space]?
- standard question: Est-ce que c'est un garçon [space]?
We could but we don't, because it is too difficult to pronounce.
This issue repeats with every verb from the 1st group (infinitive ending in -er) and pronoun "je".
The alternative is "laquelle est-ce que j'aime ?" or "j'aime bien laquelle ?"
Either "I love which one?" or "Which one do I love?", but it is also complete as "Which do I love?" or "I love which?" and we are likely to say the shorter version. If we are talking about people, "one" would be understood. Either should be acceptable.
Yea, this is an english issue, so not really relevant, but thank you for your effort! I was stupid enough to ask irrelevant question, an yet still!
- 1722
If you are learning French-for-English-Speakers, then bad English is just as relevant as bad French.
The logic of it is the "who do I love?" is not a question of choice among several subjects as it is the case with "which one..."
Well, "who do I love" is accepted as a correct answer now (dec 28th 2013). Do you disagree?
I am not enthusiastic but it seems that Duo is more flexible than me... ;-)
The answer to the question "whom do I love?" can be a long list of people.
"laquelle" is one person, animal or thing and feminine singular.
Coz if u are using interrogation, u have to interchange the words like "j'aime" becomes "aime-je" Also we dont really do inter changing with "je"
- 39
I don't get it. How is this a question? How would the person not know which thing they like? Am I missing some hidden context or alternate meaning here?
We get lots of weird sentences on Duolingo. How many times will a green shark really be eating a black apple? But you could imagine a child asking this, perhaps. Or it could be a joke in the right context. Or just some nonsense.
It's not the proper way of asking a question in English: "which one do I like?" is
There is no clue as to gender except the ''la'' and that is mis-spoken as ''le''. Pardonne mon fouillis.
That translation is wrong, most of all because of the form of the queation in english. It needs a particle interrogative, something like wich one do i like?? Also, for a better speaking of another language we can't translate literally to ours.
The French Tree's questions are spectacular. "Harold, which one is it that I like? I don't remember, you know: don't like them quite that much, haha!"
I does not sound good to me I like which one? Even it is 'gramaticaly' correct
This is the relaxed, in-speech way of asking a question in French.
Obviously, you may not translate it word for word, since you would probably use "which one to I like/love?".
This sentence makes no sense it is like. I like and then witch one. CRAZINESS!
Which one do Iike? and I like which one? are the same question with the same expected result........its not a mistake it is an error and should be rectified
In proper English, you should ask questions with a Verb-Subject inversion and not with a statement and a question mark at the end. This is why "I like which one?" is not accepted.
Thanks for that........It makes sense, but I'm an Australian and we do say "Which one do I like?" as a response at times, if we have not heard or mis-heard a question as such.
"which one do I like?" is indeed proper English, since it has the interrogative verb-subject inversion...
This is not necessarily true,I like which one is perfectly acceptable as a qustion in'proper' English
It would be acceptable if you meant some surprise or expect confirmation of the question asked or answer given before, like "what? you like which one?".
There is no such intention in the French "j'aime laquelle ?"
I am English and Sitesurf is correct about the English, at least as we speak it in my part of the world.
without punctuation to indicate tell me if the following is a question or not......''You've already spent all that money .''
But that's completely different. With "laquelle" (or "lequel") you know it has to be a question. "Laquelle" is a question word. If a sentence contains it, then that sentence is a question.
