"La pomme est mauvaise."
Translation:The apple is bad.
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Yes, but it's pronounced "z". At the end of "mauvais" the s is not pronounced.
My American ears can hear neither an S nor a Z. I think she pronounces "mauvaise" as "moo-vall-v". I listened to it over and over and, even with the French words in front of me, I could not hear her saying anything that I would ever recognize as "mauvaise" when I hear it again.
The answer to that is quite complicated, but in short it is because of your American ears. Because you are not familiar with the word "mauvaise" and how it sounds it is more difficult to identify it when you hear it and it is also easier for you to mis-hear the letters/sounds. Hence why the Z sound at the end of mauvaise is soundling like a V to you.
Everyone has this problem at first, even the French themselves when they were children. Just one of the difficulties in learning a language.
As an afterthought, I have problems telling sounds apart sometimes with my laptop speakers since they are of poor quality. Perhaps better speakers/headphones may help?
You might try searching for "mauvaise" on forvo.com and listening to all the examples given. That could give you a better handle on how the word is pronounced by real people in various combinations of words.
My brazilian ears made me hear "nouvelle". I don't know how that happened. haha
yeah she does say it, its not a great recording though, so i can see why theres confusion over it
I'm having trouble understanding the difference between Mauvaise and Mauvais. Can someone explain it to me?
@Tashi23. Mauvaise modifies a feminine noun and Mauvais modifies a masculine noun.
So mauvaise is the feminine one (because of the e at the end) and mauvais is the masculine one.
That would be "La pomme est terrible", (pronounced "Terreebler). This has potentially a completely different sense to mauvais/bad.
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Well, than DL should not put "terrible" as one of "mauvais"'s meanings. In another excercise, I translated mauvaise--> terrible and it was accepted.
Understood, Vidadicta. A few things maybe worth noting here. The drop-down alternative translations (rather than "Meanings") are not necessarily in the context of the lesson's task sentence. (Nope, I don't understand why either. Not yet.) Without the actual sentence or context of your previous exercise where Terrible was accepted as a solution for Mauvais no-one can offer constructive comment/discussion on it. I, too find DL seeming to be confusing, even hipocritical at times however maybe in time, further into the course, we'll find reasons and examples which explain this. Cordial.
Why cannot one say, "The apple is flawed"? I would say that in English. @earthtoolu; I don't think it hurts to think of nouns as "being" a gender. Anything that helps you to remember which form is correct can be useful.
Regarding earthtoolu, this is actually quite true and it is how I remember a lot of nouns' genders, picturing a cow with long eyelashes and mascara reminds me that vache is feminine. I just wanted to explain that there is no logic or reason behind assigning a certain gender to a certain noun, they are arbitrary.
Hi Wunel. Such good advice as always. So off I went, bought an apple some false eyelashes mascara and red paint and gave my apple serious face-lift. I'm so so disappointed that it Still doesn't resemble a cow, ❤❤❤❤❤❤!
Could it not also be "The apple is terrible"? Or would that be "La pomme est tres mauvaise." ?
terrible = horrible, épouvantable, dégoutante, immonde, infecte, immangeable...
très mauvaise would be "very bad"
"mauvaise" is the feminine version of "mauvais" and you have to agree the adjective with feminine noun: "la pomme".
The adjective placement you're thinking about is when the adjective is directly modifying the noun, such as "The bad apple [made me sick]." The sentence in this example is saying what the apple is: "The apple is bad." Do you see the difference?
Im confused as to when the E goes on the end. It goes on when we're talking about an object in general ie: "the apple" and when its specific we don't add the E?
The addition of E at the end of an adjective is the mark of feminine grammatical gender.
une/la (fem) pomme (fem) est mauvaise (fem)
un/le (masc) pain (masc) est mauvais (masc)
If mauvais means bad or terrible, why can't we say The apple is terrible?
@SharonDolphin. Presumably you were given Terrible in the drop-down options. I don't know why Duo does this, maybe there is a context somewhere where it may be appropriate to use Mauvais to insinuate Terrible? The French for Terrible is Terrible, end of. So, do beware of using the drop-down alternatives. I've been foxed many times by them and have a dictionary now to check things against.
French adjective "terrible" is tricky, because depending on context it can mean "fantastic" or "horrible". So, to be used with caution!
Thanks Sitesurf. Yes, it is also tricky in English. It is usually applied to Terror and Terrifying but often can mean Bad (But not in the "Rotten" sense more a severe lack of quality). Never fantastic, though, which is interesting. To return to Sharon's query, is there any context where Mauvais would be used to insinuate Terrible and if not, why is it in the drop-down options? I'm sure not only Sharon and I are foxed by this. Thanks in advance.
Thanks a lot, Jackjon and Sitesurf! This is very helpful to understand the specific meaning of how mauvais is used. Sitesurf, can you be more specific about the use of mauvais when it means fantastic?
Basically, "la pomme est mauvaise" means that it tastes nasty, just like "the apple is bad".
Other ways to qualify bad foods: - la pomme n'est pas bonne (more usual than "mauvais/e" actually) - la pomme a mauvais goût - la pomme a un goût affreux / horrible / détestable / épouvantable... - la pomme est dégoûtante (disgusting) - la pomme est infecte (revolting?) - la pomme est dégueulasse (slang, but so frequent! pls don't repeat I taught you a dirty word...).
If you look it up in a dictionary, you will see that "mauvais" can have various meanings according to context: wrong, filthy, poor, weak, unpleasant...
"Terrible" can mean "fantastic" (not "mauvais"):
- cette fille est terrible!
- elle a un charme terrible
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In English, "bad" means "not good" but "bad" also can mean "cool" (Michael Jackson is bad/cool) Yet, "cool" not only means "awesome" but also "a little cold" Yet, "a little cold" can also mean "a bit indifferent" or it can mean that you have "a minor illness." You have to look at the context of the sentence to determine what the correct meaning of the word is...no matter what the choices the word's drop-down says.
I lost a heart typing in "terrible" in place of bad. why is "terrible" wrong here ? One of the translations for "mauvaise" is "terrible".!!!
