44 Comments
Surely "he is different to his brother" should be right as well?
Edit: I'm British, native English speaker.
My comment has to do with another solution it presents - it says that "He is different from her brother" - how can it be translated that way, that doesn't make any sense to me.
Because the "son" can mean either "his" or "her" - we assume it refers back to the subject of the sentence ("il"), but it could just as well refer to some other random person.
It is not easy in this sentence, and either his or her would be a correct translation. If you wanted to be more precise in a particular situation, I think you would say "Il est different du frère d'elle/de lui.
778
It makes sense. It just doesn't provide much information. Since I don't have a sister I am different from every woman's brother.
Of course, you could then reasonably ask .....in what way are you different from her brother?
I was also taken aback by the alternate phrase. It's a very strange construction at first, but it could make sense if there are three parties, a man (John), and brother-sister pair (Frank-Jill). Then: John is different than Jill's brother.
for some reason the word his was missing so i could not actualy get it right what happend?
- 10
If it's one of those click on exercises it happens all the time. There is probably an alternative answer that you can make from what is there, but Duolingo doesn't give you that answer. It's a glitch that need fixing.
People in Britain mainly use 'different to' and in America they mainly use 'different than' but the most correct is 'different from'. But all should be accepted. I'm more worried about the suggest solution "He is different from her brother." He changes gender mid sentence??
That makes sense -- the speaker could be comparing a man to the brother of someone else (who's female). E.g., Tobias: "Lindsey's new boyfriend looks like her brother." Gob: "No, he's different from her brother."
Exactly, but "son" could be "his" or "her" - why do they choose to make it her. It's wierd without having a context.
I think they are just trying to remind us that son can mean either his or her.
- 110
The absolutely grammar-nut correct ways are "different from", "similar to", "compared with". But UK, AU etc usage has grown to accept "different to and compared to". According to http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/adjectives-adverbs/different-from-vs-different-than/ "different than" is found in English texts as old as 300 years.
Hi, we can not say "HE is different from HER brother" we either say " SHE is different from HER brother" or " HE is different from HIS brother" .. Correct this please!
- 778
You can say it if you have already established who he refers to and who is the person referred to as her. Tom is different from Sally's brother. How is he different from her brother?
Speaking of believability, how are you on, and on this lesson, with having no language icon next to your username? I'm curios.
- 358
This grammatically incorrect as the he cannot be different from her brother it should be She is different from her brother or He is different from his brother.
hmmm....no. There is a girl, who has a brother and HE is different from her brother. In French Il est different de son frere means he is different from his / her brother. The word "son" can refer to the subject's own brother, to male third party's brother or to a female third party's brother. There is no way of knowing. Therefore this sentence / translation is correct.
Why is "He is different from her brother" the right answer!?! There wasn't even an option to put 'his'
Different to is not correct English although it is now widely used. You compare something with something so it is different from and not different to.
Wouldn't "He is different from her brother" be "Il est différent de son frère à elle"? Or perhaps without "son"?
- 595
This time duolingo game the options "He is different from 'her' brother". They must to fix it. How can I report this?
Shouldn't this be "He is different from his brother." and not "He is different from her brother."
Native (British) English speaker, I would almost always say "different to" not "different from". It should be accepted
Sorry to stick my oar in, but ‘different from’ is actually the right answer grammatically (in British English, at any rate, and what I was brought up to say), even if many people use ‘different to’ and apparently in the US ‘different than’ (which sounds plain weird to me). I think DL were trying to teach the grammatically correct version.
- 778
This is different from that. (different followed by a noun or demonstrative pronoun)
This is different than I remember. (different followed by a clause)
