"Which ones do they like?"
Translation:Lesquels aiment-ils ?
30 Comments
I cannot answer definitively but my French teacher told me there are 3 ways to ask a question and "Ils aimient lesquelles" is one of them.
I believe it's because you're asking a question. Try googling "french interrogative subject verb inversion" for explanations from people more knowledgeable than myself :)
“lesquels“ plural, “est-ce“ singular... maybe? Anyway, “sont-ce“ isn't used, it seems.
I guess this makes sense, but could someone please explain if this is the right explanation?
I'm no expert, but I think you can decide based on the gender, which will usually be provided contextually. Lesquels is masculine; lesquelles is feminine. So you could have "lesquels aiment-ils" or "lesquelles aiment-elles" for the masculine plural or feminine plural, respectively.
Although you are righr in saying that the choice is based on gender, it not the gender of the subject which determines it: you could have "lesquelles aiment-ils?" if the lesquelles is referring to something feminine, eg 'which girls'. If no context is provided, you should be able to use either (although the French typically default to the masculine form)
I'm not entirely sure. However, there would be no hyphen between ils and aiment in your sentence anyway as it is not an inversion. Only use hyphens when inverting (e.g. aiment-ils). To be safe, I would use inversion after lequel and it's variants (laquelle, lesquels etc), and 'lesquels aiment-ils' is of course what Duolingo recommends.
I said "Lesquels aiment-t-ils?", which is incorrect. When is the "-t-" appropriate?
The "-t-" has the purpose of avoiding two vowel sounds in a sequence. If you have "Il aime lesquels?" and want to invert it, you have "Lesquels aime-t-il?" to avoid pronouncing the "e" in "aime" and the "i" in "il" in a row. In the case of the plural subject ("Lesquels aiment-ils?") you don't have vowels in a sequence between words, so you don't need the "-t-". I hope this helps...
18
Just a bit tricky of French. Ils aiment would end with a vowel sound, effectively. Aiment-ils does not. Interesting!
why is the verb before everything else? why not lesquelles ils aiment bien?
Could someone remind me of the website where you can plug in French text and hear it spoken? I don't know where to begin pronouncing this sentence...
Laquelle is used for a singular feminine noun. Lesquelles is for more than one feminine object. The dress? Which one? La robe ? Laquelle ?. The dresses? Which ones? Les robes ? Lesquelles ?
why isn't lesquelles est-ce qu'ils aiment? marked right? when I learned inversion as questions in french i know i could say aiment-ils but i could also say est-ce qu'ils aiment, it's longer yes, but it's still correct
The only inversion i have been able to find on any grammar site for this sentence is lesquelles aiment -ils?
