"Il fait des progrès en cuisine."
Translation:He makes progress in cooking.
57 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I feel like the 'in' is not that necessary, at least I wouldn't use it in a casual conversation. I'm not a native English speaker so please enlighten me!
The "in" is necessary. This is a slightly odd sentence, but think of it in the context of someone learning any skill, eg "he is making progress in woodwork". You couldn't leave out the "in".
1998
But "in" can be left out before the gerund. Cooking, driving, reading. Possibly better with "in" but not always necessary.
I am a native English speaker, and agree it is a clumsy sentence, but no clumsier without the "in" which is not necessary.
Why is "progresses" unacceptable? I feel like that's a challenge of my mastery of English, not French...
I think that an English person would say "progress with cooking" rather than "progress in cooking".
If I'm right, 'cooking' here is the gerund? I though that in french the gerund is expressed through the gerund, so why is it not "Il fait des progrès en cuisiner"? Is it just a turn of phrase or is there a rule I should be aware of?
the French participe présent is more or less similar "physically" (-ant ending vs -ing) to the English gerund, but not to be used the same way.
in particular, we often use it with preposition "en": "en cuisinant" means "while cooking".
In this sentence: "il fait des progrès en cuisinant" = "he is making progress while cooking" mean something different from "en cuisine" / "in cooking".
I could have gone for the obvious "He makes progress in cooking", but I thought a more common expression in English fitted here: "He is improving his cooking", but, what a surprise, it bumped!. Your thoughts.
Duolingo loves direct translations, i.e. when the reverse is similar:
he is improving his cooking = il améliore sa cuisine.
If the intention is to teach you "faire des progrès en", you may not memorize it as effectively if you adapt it to a nice English translation. Mechanically, next time you will want to express 'improving one's Verb-ing", chances are that "faire des progrès en" will not come top of your mind.
Je ne l'oublierais jamais. Je croix que je fais des progrès en apprendre la langue française.
Je ne l'oublierai jamais= simple future does not have an -s (conditional present does)
Je crois (une croix = a cross)
Des progrès en français or des progrès dans l'apprentissage du français.
Cheers!
Yes, "des" definitely. The reason is that he makes "some" progress, or "an undefined quantity of" progress.
In English, to mean that, either you use "some" or nothing, in French, the indefinite article is compulsory. In singular form, it would be "un progrès".
- 387
But I suppose(d) that "des" is ONLY for plurals? E.g., "Il y a des arbres dans notre cour" (but "Il fait de bons résultats en cuisine")?
Yes, that is right. However, "des" becomes "de" in front of an adjective.
Actually it is a common usage that "progrès" is plural in this expression (faire des progrès), probably assuming the guy has made more than one... Which does not mean that you can't use it in singular in another context.
- "aujourd'hui, il m'a salué, c'est un progrès" (assuming that usually, he merely ignores me)
- 1550
OK, I think I've got this now. I had difficulty getting my head round progrès having a plural, while the noun progress in English has not.
"un progrès, des progrès" is a countable noun that just happens to have an ending -s in singular.
Yes, «des» becomes «de» in front of adjectives, however many French people do not even know this themselves so you often see things like « des jolies filles» etc...
Grammatically, what part of speech is "cuisine" in this sentence? If it is a noun, why is no article required?
"Cuisine" is a noun in this sentence, but often (although not always) the article is omitted after the preposition "en".
Il fait froid en hiver. Il est allé en France. J’ai vu un policier en uniforme. Or another example from these exercises: "Son drapeau était blanc en signe de paix"
I thought you make progress 'at' doing something rather than 'in'. Can any English speaker comment on this please?
Canadian native English speaker here. I would be much more likely to use "in". If I were to say "at" it would probably emphasize the place where the progress is occurring: "He is making progress at soccer practice". "She is making progress at her piano lessons." But I would say: "He is making progress in soccer", "She is making progress in piano".
- 425
I answered "He is making progress at cooking", which is definitely how I would phrase this in English. The only time I would say "in cooking" would be if I meant "in cooking class" but shortened it for brevity - which does not seem to be what the French phrase here means.
I translated "cuisine" as "cookery",which was not accepted.
I have reported that it should be.
Would anyone else say that 'cookery' as well as 'cooking' should be correct? Don't know if I want to report it as I'm not sure how common it is
duo rejected my response was: "he is making cooking progress." hmmm maybe it is because they have the "en" in there...je ne sais pas...
How do you distinguish this from the il fait = it is necessary to... construction?
From the verb "faire": il fait = he/it makes or he/it does.
it is necessary to = il faut (verb "falloir")
Not a native speaker. I would say "He makes a progress...", what's wrong with " a"?
Hi everyone i need some one to help me know what the difference between "dans" and "en"
Generally speaking "dans" means "inside": je suis dans la cuisine (inside the room).
"En" is mostly used with non-tangible things: je suis bon en cuisine (in the field of cooking).
"En" is also used with countries, continents, years, months and transportation:
- je suis en France, en Europe
- nous sommes en 2016, en août.
- je pars en voiture, en train, en avion
I agree with Nabasar. In English, we would say 'he is making progress with cooking. That was marked wrong for me.
- 1826
I typed : He makes progress in the kitchen. It was accepted. Is this correct? My thought was, it may be one of those one-off expressions in French that do not require "la" before cuisine.....
I don't think "he makes progress in the kitchen" is correct, because the French would have "dans la cuisine", and I am not sure what this would exactly mean (what is he doing in the kitchen? wiping the floor?).
"en cuisine" describes his speciality, like "in cooking/drawing/dancing...".
Whats the meaning of cuisine? I wrote chicken and duo didn't accept my answer.
Have you not found a dictionary?
There seems to be some confusion between "chicken" and "kitchen" (please look them up).
une cuisine = a kitchen (room)
une cuisine/la cuisine = cuisine = "The cuisine of a country or district is the style of cooking that is characteristic of that place" (source: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cuisine)
cuisiner = to cook
Sitesurf refers to "A countable noun" in relation to progrés. I am also having a question with "Werkzeug" in German which is also referred to as such. As a native (U.K.) English speaker, I have never heard of a countable noun before. I had thought it equated to a collective noun in U.K. English, but it appears to have the opposite grammatical effect, ie. a collective noun takes the singular, even though it refers to a number of items, but a countable noun takes the plural, even when the word is singular. What is a countable noun and how do I recognise it?
A countable noun is a noun you could count, so you can use it in singular and in plural: "an/one apple, apples".
An uncountable noun is a mass noun you do not usually count, so it is used in singular, without an article (or number) in English, and the verb is conjugated in singular: "this is food" (c'est de la nourriture) or "I study history" (j'étudie l'histoire).
Collective nouns can be singular or plural and they represent a group: "fruit" is collective, as well as "grapes". The verb is then conjugated in singular or plural: "my pants are blue" (mon pantalon est bleu), or "the police has come" (la police est venue).
As you can see from the above examples, English countable, uncountable or collective nouns may or may not translate to countable, uncountable or collective nouns in French.
can smoeone explain to me the difference between: en cuisine/ a la cuisine/ dans cuisine/ sur cuisine... thanks.
Il fait des progrès en cuisine / en mathématiques / en langues... as a field of study/know-how
Il est en cuisine: the chef/cook is said to be "en cuisine" as his work place. If you and I are "in the kitchen", we won't say "en cuisine" but "dans/à la cuisine".
Il est dans la cuisine / dans le salon / dans le restaurant... static, in a closed place
Il va dans la cuisine / dans la chambre... movement into a closed place
Il est/va à la cuisine / au marché / à la bibliothèque... static in, or movement to a place (less precise than with "dans" - it can also be an open place)
"I almost submitted "He makes progress in cooking" but I was so lost meanwhile because this is not a proper way to express this idea. It definitely looked strange to me, and it seemed more proper to say "He makes cooking progress". The word options were odd in general, could this question example simply be removed?
- 1628
"He's making progress with his cooking."
Any reason why this wasn't accepted? I'm not a native speaker, but it sounds like a natural way to express it to me. The way I understand the sentence, it's about the skill of cooking, rather than a specific instance of cooking.