170 Comments
Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of apples being eaten in this section?
Yeah LOL
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Don't be silly. Turtles don't eat cake (or apples). I watched this documentary about turtles and they eat pizza.
ummm.... i guess they could use orange, but even in the english alphabet (learning by pictures) they use apples more than anchovies for sure.
is there no distinction in french between turtle and tortoise? that seems odd.
There isn't in most varieties of formal English either. A lot of people don't even know the difference. Here's a song to help those people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRWAFQqQY9Y
(Technically, what he's calling a turtle there is actually a terrapin. True turtles have flippers instead of webbed feet and live in the ocean.)
j.l.parker- turtle and tortoise are tortue in French. It can be all kind of turtles not only marine
"The elephant eats an apple." "The monkey eats an apple." "The turtle eats an apple."
Wow. Lots of animals like apples :D
Well, most of those animals would probably not eat an orange and they want to make us practice a word that uses the article “an”. They could have the monkey eat a banana. (une banane) That would be good. I would like to see the elephant eat a peanut. (une cacahuète). Okay, that last one is not exactly a beginner’s word.
Ok quick question for a noob, can someone please explain the difference between mange/manges/mangent/mangeous, and what context each are to be used?
http://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-french-verb-manger.html
je mange = I eat
tu manges = you eat
il/elle mange = he/she eats
nous mangeons = we eat
vous mangez = you eat (plural or formal)
ils/elles mangent = they eat
That is tricky to remember but sooo helpful!!!
Mange means eating and mangeous means we are eating the other two im not so sure what it means
There is no such thing as “mangeous”.
« Je mange » can mean “I eat”, “I am eating” or “I do eat”.
« Il mange » or « elle mange » can mean “he eats” or “she eats”, or “he is eating” or “she is eating”, or “he does eat” or “she does eat”
« Nous mangeons » means “we eat”, “we are eating” or “we do eat”.
As for the others, « tu manges » uses the familiar singular “you”.
While « vous mangez » uses the familiar plural “you” or the formal “you” (both singular or plural).
« elles mangent » uses a form of “they” that is only used for an all female group.
« ils mangent » uses a form of “they” for a masculine or coed group.
Again all these forms of the French present can be used to mean the English simple present, the English present continuous or the English emphatic form (not the past emphatic form though, my apologies, I fixed that.)
[torty]
please take a look at this for phonetics: click here
and to hear another voice saying "une tortue", please go to Google/Translate (use the mike) or to forvo.com
No, it is not better to change to the past tense if the present tense was given to you in French.
I think that as an herbivore, a tortoise is more likely to be eating an apple. Scroll up for the kinds of “tortues”
No, the French word "tortue" could be either a turtle or a tortoise. Check out the French wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortue
So they have "les tortues terrestres" which are "tortoises " (herbivores), "les tortues aquatique" which are “terrapins ” or "freshwater turtles " (carnivores) and "les tortues marines" which are "sea turtles "(omnivores).
I could understand confusing « pomme » with « homme », but with « fille » ?
Okay, here’s my gripe with this... I wish there was more variety with these sentences. Can’t they switch it up and use “une banane” or “une fraise” or “un poulet” so you can get practice using other foods in sentences. I feel like my brain is becoming too accustomed to “une pomme” and will be the first thing I think of if I want to say what an animal is eating. And I do my best not to rush but sometimes I find myself going through the lessons speedily because it’s quite tedious to go through the same sentences over & over again with no variations in between. When the same sentences are used, the words and the meaning seem to stop registering in my mind and I begin to answer questions correctly albeit mechanically because it’s usually always the same and that doesn’t seem to be the most effective way of truly learning & memorizing.
I think that the English courses were designed first and they wanted to practice using “an”, but there wasn’t much vocabulary yet. So here they could adjust the reverse course for more variety.
Here are some sentences to practice:
« Le singe mange une banane. »
« L’escargot mange une fraise.»
« Le loup mange un poulet. »
Did you get them all? They were:
“The monkey eats a banana. ”
“The snail eats a strawberry. ”
“The wolf eats a chicken.”
Question, why are they eating only apples? What about all the good stuff in the food lesson, how about we eat oranges too? It's not applying earlier lessons to the lessons NOW.
True. Something like "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse" would also be more interesting. Apples are pretty much symbolic of fruit sometimes though, and it seems many people think they know enough French to skip earlier lessons, only to end up asking those basic questions repeatedly (in every single lesson) :/
Most animals can eat apples, but oranges are too acidic for many of them. Personally, I don’t think that I need practice to remember that « une orange » is “an orange”. We just need to give the turtle some lettuce. « La tortue mange de la laitue. »
Yes, a tortoise can eat an apple and a tortoise is « une tortue terrestre ».
Turtles and tortoises are two completely different animals, for a start turtles have fins and they swim, tortoises have legs and they don't swim. So it's weird how they are both called the same in France :/
3 http://cnrtl.fr/definition/tortue
SYNT. Tortue aquatique, marine; tortue d'eau, de mer, de terre;
I wrote "La torture" (hands are just used to typing english words and it's a little strange to make them type french words) and didn't get anything else in the sentence wrong, but the website said I got it wrong. Shouldn't that be regarded as a typo? I obviously know the word is tortue but just spelled it wrong.
a typo would be "torteu" or "totrue", for example, because those words do not exist.
"la torture" means "torture", so if you confuse "une tortue" and "une torture", this is a mistake, not a typo.
Do double check your words if you have a spell checker interfering with your spelling.
Why is la sometimes pronounced "lay" and sometimes "lah"? Does anyone know any hints or rules to this? Thanks.
“An apple a day helps keep the doctor away.!”
« Une pomme chaque matin éloigne le médecin. »
Why one apple instead of an apple I get that un/une means both one and a/an, but why did I get marked off?
I don’t know what you put, if everything else was correct “une pomme” can mean either “an apple” or “one apple.” and those can be reported as correct if one of those were not allowed.
priscilla- because the second word begins with a vowel, a apple has a weird pronounciation, so you say AN Apple
I can't help typing eats to eat and an to a because it is really confusing especially when my mother language is not english
robert- It's simple. eats is only for he, she it. an, when the following word starts with a vowel.
More precisely;
I/you/they/we eat
He/she/it eats
A (indefinite article le/la or in spanish el/la or in german ein/eine) it becomes an when the next word begins with a vowel. This is not for any real grammatical reason but because it sounds better, similar to how in French they sometimes insert a 't' between words so all the vowel sounds don't run together (a-t-il or a-t-elle is all I could think of)
“le/la” in French and “el/la” in Spanish are definite articles. “un/une” in French and “un/una” in Spanish are indefinite articles.
We don’t count lettuce, so we don’t need “a” in front of lettuce. We could say “a lettuce leaf” though.
Can't understand any of my sentences... And my pronunciation is pretty correct
You can choose in the words, but in the words are a wrong word: ant, is this a english word or wrong. i think it is wrong.
has anybody noticed that every single time it tell you to say something it is always the animals eating an apple. soon enough there will be a low supply of apples
Why do the French use the same word for tortoise and turtles when they are different animals?
It's really annoying how it keeps marking me wrobg when I write "a apple" instead of "an apple". I suck at english
“The tortoise eats an apple.”
or “The tortoise is eating an apple.” are both correct. I think Duolingo is letting you put “turtle” also.
I don't know if this was brought up above because there's too many posts about apples but could someone tell me if I'm right in thinking that:
"je mange" can be translated to both ”i eat" and "i am eating" and understanding of the intended meaning is context. And that this is also true for "nous mangeons", "vous mangez" etc.
I ask because in this case it will except both.
Many thanks from a new learner!
You are right. Both are accepted as correct. If you really wanted to say that “I am eating at this very moment.” You could say : « Je suis en train de manger. ». , but it is an emphatic form like saying “I am in the middle of eating.”
« Non, l’homme mange de la soupe de tortue. » or is it « la soupe à la tortue », I have seen it both ways.
« Une pomme » = “an apple” Hurray, we may never forget.
At least the program isn’t obsessing over « une orange » = “an orange”
Why are all the animals eating an apple!? LOL
I go to French school and we have NEVER discussed turtles that eat apples they should make more realistic sentences.
Lets picture this. Unless the apple is cut up. I cant imagine a turtle (slow) eating an apple (round).
We are just trying to keep healthy.
« Une pomme chaque matin éloigné le médecin. »
“An apple a day helps keep the doctor away.”
« Tortues terrestres » are tortoises.
« Tortues aquatiques » are freshwater turtles or terrapins.
« Tortues marines » are sea turtles.
What English uses turtle for both freshwater and sea turtles? They are very different actually, Tortoises are herbivores, freshwater turtles are carnivores and sea turtles are omnivores.
Are "tortoise" and "turtle" the same in French, then? "La tortue" has been translated both ways.
The word tortue is used for both. There are also specific terms.
So they have "les tortues terrestres" which are "tortoises " (herbivores), "les tortues aquatique" which are "freshwater turtles " (carnivores) and "les tortues marines" which are "sea turtles "(omnivores). I gave a link higher up for the French Wikipedia.
The previous question for me said "Le cheval mange une pomme." and I put "The horse is eating an apple." It says that it's wrong because the actual translation is "The horse is eating ONE apple." So the next question is "La tortue mange une pomme." so I put "The tortoise is eating one apple." and it says that the actual translation is "The tortoise is eating an apple." ---What?
Both “an apple” and “one apple”. should have been accepted at both sentences, so just report them as correct.
for the french word "tortue", can i just put "turtle", cuz its easier to type in
Yes, “tortue” is also “turtle”.
Scroll up for the specific names for each, such as “tortues marines” for “sea turtles.”
Yes, they can add an extra word when they want to distinguish between them, “tortues terrestres” (tortoises), “tortues aquatiques” freshwater turtles and “tortues marines” (sea turtles).
