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- "Poses-tu le livre ?"
49 Comments
I listened to the audio for this dozens of times after finding out what the phrase was. Is it natural for Poses-tu le livre to sound like "pays" tu le livre?
Why is 'you put down the book?' wrong. A question mark and raised intonation make it obviously a question and therefore the sentence and translation should be correct....shouldn't it?
You wrote a statement with a question mark at the end, which is not the proper way questions are formed in English.
- do you put down the book? is the proper way.
I'm not sure that I entirely agree with you that statements can't be made into questions in English. It's common when seeking confirmation of actions and procedures, viz.:
You entered the room? Then you turned to the table? You put down the book? You're sure you put it on the table? etc, etc
Asking for confirmation or expressing surprise with a statement and a question mark is, of course, frequent in English, but if the French sentence uses the formal or standard interrogative form, the English translation will have to be a standard question.
but in class we learn three ways to write a question: 1. est-ce que...and similar 2. reverse aimes-tu and 3. statement with question mark. Just pointing out that the translation could be correct but it is not recommended.
If the French question is formal, the English translation should be formal as well.
I can never tell from audio whether the person is saying "le", the singular form, or "les", the plural form.
I have quite a hard time with most singular/plural form words, luckily I can help on this one though :-)
- Le sounds like Luh
- While Les sounds like Le
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Seems to me that les sounds like le, and le sounds like lu or luh. So if I hear le I go with les and when I hear lu or luh I go with le. So far it has almost always worked. Occasionally a speaker will be a bit harder to understand.
To the English speaker, the sound of "les" is a long "A" sound (as in "hay"), whereas "le" sound like LUH.
Is 'poser' the right translation for 'put ... down'? most translations seem to indicate that it means 'to pose' and 'mettre' is a better translation. Help!
poser quelque chose = to put something down
poser pour la photo = to pose for the picture
In english, it seems that "Do you set down the book?" and "Do you put down the book?" have the same meaning. DuoLingo disagrees, apparently!
Yes, "to set down" is a phrasal variation of "to put down". Both terms are separable. Accepted.
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In French, when you invert the normal order of words in a sentence to form a question, you connect the switched words by a hyphen. ex: Normal word order would be a subject followed by a verb: Vous parlez anglais. (You speak English.) This normal order becomes flipped, or inverted, in a question: Parlez-vous anglais? (Do you speak English?) The flipped words are connected by a hyphen. The hyphen serves as a marker: it's a flag of sorts, to indicate that you have flipped the order of those words. This is not the only way to form a question, but it seems a pervasive and popular method. (This inversion also happens outside of questions, too.)
Thank you for that it was obviously a gap in my 78 years of learning French, well 67 years of school and life. How positive this site is thanks again, Ralph902933
I keep getting this wrong because I think I am hearing livre as "livres." How can I tell it is singular and not plural, since the "s" usually isn't pronounced?
While the s in 'livres' is not pronounced, the article before livre(s) changes pronunciation from 'luh' for singular to 'leh' for plural. that is usually how I tell the difference. hope that helps
You now know that nouns' endings won't help you.
So you need to focus your hearing on other words: articles are and sound different in plural vs singular.
I can imagine this playing out in a domestic setting. "Poses-tu le livre et parles-moi?"
Not really because this part of a dialogue would need to be in imperative:"pose le livre et parle-moi !"
Yes, but it's less formal than inversion. This type of structure can only be used in yes/no questions.
Your sentence would be understood as being in past tense. To avoid confusion, use present continuous in English.
No because you need an interrogative form: are you putting down the book?
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Keep getting it wrong between "poser" and "mettre"! Can someone tell me the difference?? Pleeeease! >_<
"Poser" is a complete movement from the moment the thing is in your hands to the moment the thing is lying/sitting/standing on a given place.
- "Posez votre arme !" is what cops order villains.
"Mettre" needs something else like a destination for the movement to be complete: "mettre sur", "mettre dans", "mettre devant/derrière" or even figuratively "mettre à disposition", "mettre en place", "mettre au point", "mettre en jeu"...
- The cops can say: "Mettez votre arme sur la table !"
Exception: when "mettre" is about clothing that you put on: "je mets mon manteau noir, aujourd'hui".
Down after book not valid?
"Are you putting the book down?"
Guess not if poser is "to put down"
"Poser" may be translated as "to put down" where the English expression is separable.
- Are you putting the book down?
- Are you putting down the book?
How many years will it exactly take to fluently talk in French? Reading is alright but UNDERSTANDING the French person speak is difficult as hell.
"Are you putting down the book?" Is this correct? If not, please correct me
