"Do you drink tea?"
Translation:Tu bois du thé ?
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I am having difficulty deciding when to use "du the" or "le the" also having the same problem sucre
1508
I agree...no sense to it al all. Do you drink tea is general so should be tu bois le the. Tu veux du the..do you want some tea is specific. They should make their minds up! I agree wi a previous comment... it has become a guessing game, not a lesson, and it is BORING.
The logic behind it is, du is used for 'some', and as of what i have learned in french, you can't drink all of the tea (entire world's tea), so it's always du. On the contrary, when you like something, you like all of it. For example, j'aime le thé/café. I hope it make sense :)
Thank you so much! This was a very helpful pointer and makes so much sense!
If it's just "tea" in a sentence then it's 'du thé'. If it's a plural word then it's 'des..'. It's only ever 'le' for "the tea" or 'les' for another plural word. At least that's my understanding. So, unless it's explicitly saying "THE tea", then just go with du thé.
Wouldn't, "Tu bois du thé"? mean "Do you drink some tea"? Wouldn't you say, "tu bois le thé"? to say that in general you drink tea? This doesn't make any sense
I would say Tu bois du thé? is more like "Are you drinking tea (right now)" or "Do you want to drink (some) tea right now?" butTu bois le thé makes sense if you're asking whether liking tea is a permanent preference, as in "Do you (generally, always) drink tea?
To me, that's logical. But I don't know if it's right in French. We need a native speaker to resolve this.
I don't understand why it's "du thé" for "do you drink tea", but it's "les fruits" for "I don't like fruits". Shouldn't those sentences follow the same rules? Im very confused.
Du it's for uncountable stuff and les for things that you can count that's the reason all drinks use du (ps: this only counts for plural in singular you don't take account if something is contable or not)
- 911
I also have a problem to understand, when should we use "DU" and when should we use "LE"? Similarly when should we use "Des" and "Les"? Because most of the time I make mistakes while using them....! Also if Duo lingo avoids repeating the same questions so many times ( if you want us to do practice of writing it then also appearing the same question twice or thrice is okay but not more than that.) then it will be better. Asking the same questions again and again is really so boring...!! I also have one more problem about audio test... When I read a complete sentence correctly, still it shows as "wrong" , so it is very disappointing...! Duo lingo does have an audio issue, so if these small small things are taken care of, Duo lingo will be more impressive and enjoyable site for all... Thanking you in advance.
- 1508
I'm with you. The standard of audio has gone down, everything is repeated too close together, and now they have stopped giving access to correct answers on some lessons. Sometimes I get an answer and have to guess what it means! Even though I have been going over 300 days, these couple of weeks I feel I'm learning les and less, having to resort to books for explanations. Also, the guy who translates is at best difficult to understand, and very often sounds like he can't be bothered! It's no longer enjoyable. What a shame!
When do you use or not an article? Do you have to learn by trial and error. I really bored. It's just a guessing game, no rules on grammar usage.
French almost always uses an article, so just assume that you need one. Then you have to figure out if you need a definite ("the tea"), indefinite ("a tea," "tea," or "some tea"), or partitive ("of the tea") article. This topic is covered pretty well at About.com. I never knew what a good language resource about.com was until I started duolingo! Anyway, here's the link. Best wishes in your language studies! http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/articles.htm
I don't see how this sentence refers to a specific tea, rather than tea in general. IMO, Duo got this backwards.
When you say you like tea in general (rather than coffee or anything else), you would say "tu aimes LE the". When you say you want a portion of tea (from a pot or a jar), you would say "tu veux DU the". Now you want to say you drink tea in general, and why do you say "tu bois DU the"?
Or "tu bois du the?" is asking because the questioner doesn't know what you are drinking now, tea or coffee?
- 911
The answer to your question is no. --- Please check this link -- https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/french-easy-learning/the-partitive-article-du-de-la-de-l-and-des
- 795
That's correct. I know this rule 'in general/world' (= le) or 'dedicated case/personal' (=du). For sure you can speak to someone and say "du thé" but unfortunately there is no sign in the sentence. It's confusing...
LE unless there is a context like I am looking at you at breakfast with a cup in your hand
If the question was "Are you drinking some tea?" or even "Do you drink some tea?" Then I would agree it's "du thé". BUT, they're asking "Do you drink tea?" As in do you drink tea at all (the tea), so it's "le thé". I don't care if it says it's wrong, it's not.
Duo had us translating can i have a tea and now do you want some tea, like is it a or some? Du ou le???
Tu bois du thé: You are drinking tea (or some tea) Tu bois le thé: You (usually) drink (the substance called) tea. Surely? Otherwise I can make no sense of it.
Ha.. general subjects such as "thé, café" is not evident in sentences for english speaker.