It's because the cyborg lady puts her accents in all the wrong places to what real people do. Don't worry, listening to native speakers is actually easier than this. So if you get good at listening to her, you'll be freakin' awesome at listening to real people.

chien = /ʃjɛ̃/, chat = /ʃa/

So if you hear a /j/ sound, it's a dog, otherwise it's a cat.

You can also compare the sounds of these two words in your vocabulary:

• http://www.duolingo.com/word/fr/chien/Noun
• http://www.duolingo.com/word/fr/chat/Noun

Moi aussi! Et notre comme lotre.

Nos is for many things, notre for one. E.g. notre chien (our dog) nos chiens (our dogs)

Thank you!

in chien n is not pronounced clearly , but in chienne it is a clear distinct n at the end. So it's kind of [shja~] and [shjen]

Me too

I can't help you there. I hear it clearly for what it's worth. I've experienced audio problems with the German lessons where native speakers say the audio is fine (in this case for the pronunciation of the word "Bett"), but for a small handful of us it is garbled (I hear an "s" sound superimposed over the "tt" in "Bett"). I don't know if it has something to do with broswers or what. Click the option for "the audio is bad" and move on. Hopefully it's only an issue for this lesson for you.

I hear it clearly

as clear as a dog whimpering :)

There is no difference in pronunciation in in this sentence, but if it was plural it wouldn't be "notre chien", rather "nos chiens".

Hope that helps!

It does. One could possibly argue that in this sentence it only means "love" and not "like" at all. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/aimer.htm

Hello wongni. Notre, followed by a Singular noun of either gender.... Nos followed by a Plural noun: Notre chein; Nos chiens.

Your query is answered 3rd post above.

Hi Tanytopi and Zclawren. Now that I am more acquainted with the pronunciation, I "clearly" hear the difference. May I suggest that you go to Google translate, type in Chien and Chat together and listen to them over a hundred times. (It IS what I did). Then come back here and see if you don't "hear" a difference? 5 Euros on it that you will!

You have a good ear. That's exactly what it should sound like. http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/g/linking.htm

Enchaînement is the phenomenon whereby the consonant sound at the end of a word is transferred to the beginning of the word that follows it. Note that enchaînement is not the same thing as liaison.

Because there is only one dog Notre chien Nos Chiens Our dog, Our Dogs. The possessive in French agrees with the objective noun here.

Notre=Our, preceding a singular noun and is used for either masculine or feminine. "Notre chien=Our dog".... Nos=Our preceding a plural noun. "Nos chiens=Our dogs".

Hi Martin. It can't be Nos Chien because Nos is the plural form of Notre. Here it is Notre because there is only the one dog. If there were more than one dog, then it would be Nos ChienS.

Ce qui j`ecoute est "le chat" (pas "le chien") :)

Notre before a singular noun (here "Chien") Nos before a plural noun (Like CheinS.

Notre=Our One, Single chien (dog)... Nos=Our more than one dog, many dogs.chienS The possessive relates to the object, not the subject. So "We" don't affect the possessive. One or more dogs DO. So"My dog"="Mon chien". "My DogS"="MES chienS". "Our Dog"="Notre Chien" and "Our DogS"=NOS ChienS".

See above.

@Jianalouis. Notre=Our before either a feminine or masculine singular noun. Nos=Our before a plural noun. There is a whole array of these possessives to learn. Try about.com/french grammar possessives and scroll for them all.

Didn't quite catch that, what was your question?

@Pigcity13. Nos=Our before a plural noun, Notre=Our before a singular noun.

Yes. Notre=sing, Nos= plural

Hi Katy. With respect you are wrong. Nous aimons notre chien=We love our dog, as per sentence task and solution. Vous aimez votre chien=You love your dog which differs from the given text of the sentence task.

Hi Chloegee. Nous=We Nos=Our eg Nous aimons L'art: We like (the) art. Nous aimons Nos art: We like Our art.

Hi Future. Whatever it says, Nous=We and Notre=Our. At least at this stage in the course and grammar. End of.

Hi Jaiveer. Notre=We and Nos is the possessive form of it. Nos=Our.

Hi Justin. You're not alone. As with ALL voice recognition tools the audio only is very unreliable. It';s not a fault unique to Duo, it's just that voice recognition just drowns in its own juice. I've seen so many complaints here about this so I went on it for a trial and when I had to speak out the task, I blew a raspberry into the mic and was marked correct! I hasten to add again, that this syndrome is universal and not unique to Duo.

Yes.