- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "La tortue mange une pomme."
170 Comments
810
Don't be silly. Turtles don't eat cake (or apples). I watched this documentary about turtles and they eat pizza.
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.)
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.
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
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, 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).
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) :/
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.”
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.
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)
184
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!
« 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.
659
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?