150 Comments
It recognised my voice when I said the sentence in the most awful way ever! I repeated it >30 times! XD
I have tried saying something totally different from the sentence I'm supposed to say, and it still tells me I'm correct.
I've had the same experience. I turned the microphone off in my account settings because of this.
The speech recognition is awful here, on this site, I turned it off, but I love all the other things.
When I've pronounced a word wrong it will say I'm correct but it will show the answer with the mispronounced word highlighted red.
I cannot hear the "question" in the french voice. The speaker drops her tone at the end of the phrase as opposed to an increase as at the end of a phrase containing a question.
The problem is that Duo makes no difference with punctuation, even when the punctuation is important.
I never use punctuation because I know it will still be correct and also I'm lazy. I do try to use correct accents and letters like ç in garçon.
i thought that it would be "bonjour, comment allez-vous?" someone explain :(
It's exactly the same meaning, but "Bonjour, comment allez-vous?" is the very formal form, and "Salut, ça va?" the very unformal.
Also, bonjour is more like hello or good morning or good day. Salut is more like hi.
in french there isn't the difference between the question and the answer. so: how are you? --> ça va? i'm fine, thanks. ---> ça va (bien), merci.
There's difference between question and answer in French. In fomal questions, you make a subject/verb inversion, ex: Comment allez-vous? But for "ça va" it's not possible,it is unformal, almost slang.
"ça va" is the short for "ça va bien", when you say "ça va bien"/ "Je vais bien", there's no possible confusion.
I don't remember the pretext I posted this sentence in: since I now know that va means "goes".. anyway thanks for replying to the discussion! :)
"ça" can mean "it", "that"... it depends on the context, it's an impersonal, as "it", and here, it's an expression.
If you're chatting with french kids on internet you might see a lot of "sa va" or "ca va".
Yes, "sa va" is really improper and used by people who are not very good at spelling... I can understand they put "ca va" for "ça va", because they're too lazy to find the "ç" on the keyboard (It's a chat...), but I don't understand why people like to write" "sa" instead of "ça".
But it's the same with every language on the chats, the English uses more and more "u" instead of "you", "2" for "to", and "nite" for "night".
It is also the most popular way to ask' how are you/?'. The intonation of the voice, raised at the end of the sentence, means it's a question.
"ça va?" (question) is the short for "Comment ça va"? Is different from "ça va!" (assertion)
It can be used both ways. It can be translated as a question (how's it going?) and it's answer (fine). Person 1: Ca va? 2: Ca va! (Pardon my lack of cedilla)
There's no singular or plural here. The phrase "ça va" works whether you are greeting one person or a group of people.
I might be wrong, but I think that happens because you're not defining who you're talking to. It's like "How is it going". Am I right?
You can say "Nous allons bien". "Je vais bien", with the personal pronoun ("we", "I") instead of the impersonal "ça", but it's more formal.
Earlier it accepted "cheers" as a translation of "salut." Now it was incorrect. Was that because earlier "cheers" stood alone and this past time it was followed by "ca va?"
No, it's not "Cheers!" it can be either "I'm fine" or "It's ok" (when you show something to someone and you ask the person, it is ok? Yes, it's ok.
I am confused as how 'ca va' means both "How are you?" and "I am fine". Can someone please explain.
Daniel the actual literal translation would go as something like "it is going(well)" and "it is going(well)?". The second is a question because its asked in a questioning tone!
See the answer by Rachel66E above!
So would a conversation go like this? Person 1: "ca va?" Person 2: "ca va."
(excuse the antonation, can't do it on my computer :L)
Please, put the cedilla, or it's pronounced "kava" instead of "ssava".
Yes
-ça va?
-Oui, ça va.
Is a very common conversation.
The version "ça va" is not wrong, but It would be better to say "ça va bien, merci (the actual literal translation in this case would be "It is going well, thanks", if you want stay close to the formality in your conversation.
(And sorry for my mistakes, if I have many. I am not a proficient user of English yet :) )
Yes... but when you say ca va? You have to strech the last "a" and say it as a question... while the response would be said plainly as a statement.
Yes, but if you feel annoyed by this. Only use "comment ça va" instead of "ça va" it's easier.
See here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/2618775
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Comment ça va? (with the cédille, it's important), is litterally: how is it going? And the meaning is "How are you", because English, uses the verb "to be" where French uses the verb "to go", it's an idiomatic choice.
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ça va? Is the short for "Comment ça va", it is: it's ok? (litterally: it's going?)
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ça va bien/ ça va. is the possible answer to "Comment ça va?"/"ça va". I'm fine.
Ça va, is one word itself that can be translated into different forms of saying "how's it going" ,"how are you", so if you say either one of them or another thing which means he same it'll be ok.
it differs when you put a question mark or a period at the end of the sentence. "ça va." can be "comment ça va?" as well and can be used as how are you doing or how are you. maybe it's just the way it is. i usually overthink and i always find myself confused cause i compare french in english too much and not realising that french has its own rules when it comes to grammar. anyway, i hope it helps. and if you have any corrections cause i'm open at any corrections. ;)
Its because in english you change the sentense or use "does" to make a question, but in other languages we only use "?" because this the "Ça va" can be the both
Does duo not like contractions? I wrote Hi, how's it going and it corrected it to how is it going
Got this as a translation into English question. I translated, "Hello, how's it going?" It corrects me, "Hello, how is it going?" Same thing! Please fix, Duo! Merci :-)
They don't like the contraction. To report it, you should use the "report" button, because they don't read it here.
"well" means "bien" so for me with that sentence its "Salut , ça va bien?" i dont know either hahaha
thats why i turned off my microphone and speaker setting now it only gives me to type
perhaps,
all right? | it's all right? | fine? | all ok? ...
I am just asking too
I don't think so, All is well, is as "everything's ok". In French, "Tout va bien?" and it doesn't mean you greet the person personnally, but you ask about how the general things are.
-Tout va bien dans ton travail? (Everything's ok in your job?) -Oui, tout va bien, merci.
-Tout va bien? You ask it when you need to be reassured about something, maybe the person is ill, etc... So, you ask "Tout va bien?"
The computer really has trouble hearing "ça va" have to repeat at these 7 times and very slowly for it to register
they are so mean. I didn't know the word ''salut,'' but they quizzed me of it anyways. its so mean.
It's the way it works here, they suppose we are able to learn from our failures.
ca va means I am doing well but in this sentence salut, ca va? I guess it means hello, how are you?
Yes, comment ça va? Shorten in: ça va? means you ask "how are you".
and the reply, ça va, is a confirmation, yes, I'm ok/ it's ok.
The intonation has to go up and the app only wants to hear "ca va" pronounced in an affirmative way, not as a question :(
Does 'salut' have two opposite meanings? In an earlier slide I saw the word used as 'bye' but now it is 'hi'. I am confused. Please explain
Salut is more informal. It's like the difference between "Hi" (salut) and good day/morning/afternoon etc.
I wrote: "Hi, How are you going?" and it marked me wrong.
"Va" is from the verb "aller" to go, so surely mine is a closer translation than "How are you doing" ?
There is no you in the sentence. A literal translation would be "How's it going?" which is just another way to ask, "How are you?"
But the correct answer had a "you" in it. I was objecting to DL accepting "How are you DOing" but not "How are you GOing" when the verb used (va) is from ALLER - TO GO - it's the same in Greek.
Salut, Ca va means "Hi, how are you?" but that is the same thing as "Hi, doing fine?"!!!
So what's wrong with "Hallo", as opposed to "Hello"? Duo doesn't like the former, but as far as I'm concerned they are interchangeable.
is salut used for both bye and hello? Previously it corrected me when I typed hello, now it ia correcting me when I type bye :/
So when asking for translations are you looking for literal translations? I typed "Hi, how goes?" and it was incorrect. The corrected answer given was "Hi, how it goes?" An English speaker is unlikely to use "how it goes?" Tks.
"How goes?" just about has meaning, but I don't recall ever hearing it in real life. "How it goes?" is virtually meaningless. "How goes it?" is marginally better, particularly if the speaker is asking about some specific task or action. Much more general and common usage is "How's it going?"
i am confused. they said it was "i am doing well" and suddenly it changes into "how are you". anybody explain
I've seen some French teens write "sava" in online chats. Is this very common?
Hello, are you doing good? Is that correct answer or?....Hello, how are you doing?
i said it is hi how are you and it said i was wrong and i repeated it 30 times! XD
i tapped it but it did not come up it must have been the chrome book i was using it might have malfunctioned
Sooooo basic translation, it could be said in other ways, don't just use your ways : hello, you good? Example
Why is it that sometimes its "Comment ça va" and then this time it was just "ça va" and they are saying it's the same?
Duo says "Salut , comment ça va " means " Hi , how are you " then he asked "Salut , ça va" still the same answer without comment though comment means how or to be added with tu' to make what , help please , merci beaucoup
How are you is supposed to be comment ça va. This is confusing as it is missing comment!
Yes! You're the firts one on the page to write it without mistake, cheers, lol.
yah. in some fiction books the carachters say ''hullo'' or ''hallo'' instead of ''hello''.
It can accept all the alternative spellings of Hello. Imagine they have to do the same for all alternative spellings an every words.
From wikipedia: "Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hallo via hollo (also holla, holloa, halloo, halloa)"
