"Elle peut manger des crêpes, mais elle veut manger du chocolat."
Translation:She can eat crepes, but she wants to eat chocolate.
136 Comments
I had to slow this down to finally understand every word that was being said. I hope french gets easier to listen to with time.
In addition to Duolingo, I strongly recommend that you listen to TV or radio and read some easy literature. It's very frustrating at first to hear what seems to be random blabber, but after a while you start catching some of the things you've learned.
The videos are also available on Youtube, or at least the first 26 appear to be.
2013
Thank you! Thats available from Germany. I will save the videos to my pc ;-)
On Youtube are currently only a view videos. Almost all videos are viewable on this site: http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_french%20in%20action
I completely agree with you, you'll start to identify some of the sounds and start recognizing words easily over time.
I agree. I can hear things more without thinking now when listening to the radio, TV or people etc. I should get out and about more seeing as I live in France lol. 2014! New resolution!
Ouais. I'm watching Lost (dubbed to french) and listening to french radio. It's still just blabber but I have the impression that I'm slowly catching on more and more
- 2013
Me too. I thought i understand a little French, but this sentence take me to the ground. :-)
Don't feel so bad, Samy; it was a clever trap. You were expecting parallel structure with the verbs (peut...peut). They slipped in (peut...veut). If you weren't listening very carefully, you got dinged.
Yeah. I couldn't hear the word "veut". I replayed it multiple times slowly, and then eventually had to guess.
I had the same problem and have reported an error; the verbs were not in the vocab list. I think the system wrongly assumes that people do lessons in a left to right order.
You must have. Of course I don't know how long ago you wrote this, but I started learning French in Jan 2014, and vouloir was taught in Verbs Present 2, lesson 6 and pouvoir was in Verbs Present 2, lesson 1.
Sometimes you may have to repeat a lesson to see all of the action but I would have thought all verbs would be part of every section. I started too in Jan2014 and yes "vouloir" was there in Verbs Present 2, lesson 6 BUT I did not see pouvoir was in Verbs Present 2, lesson 1.
No, these words were not taught yet. Anyone know which lesson they're taught in?
J'accord! Peut was not taught in the lesson, and I put in pour since it is hard to make out a word you haven't heard yet. End result - a heart lost.
- 494
I have vouloir in my notes but didn't remember having seen it as a helping verb. I thought "The chicken eats crepes... " Gotta work on my audio.
I'm not an expert, but the pronunciation on Duo isn't always the best. It seems like there should be one.
Duolingo rarely uses liaisons, they are not mandatory but highly preferrable where they are allowed
Liaison is option after "mais" (but required with most other conjunctions). http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm
- 1994
A liaison is where you pronounce the last consonant of a word you normally wouldn't due to certain conditions being met (like for example, the next word beginning with a vowel or a silent h)....
To learn more: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons.htm
Yes, and I have closely listened. I have been doing this long enough to see that there is a discrepancy between the slower version and the fast version. Problem has been reported.
me too. I know i wrote down correctly what I heard - and I know the difference, so not too bothered ;)
I find it impossible to hear the V in veut, even after I saw the answer and listened again
Omg, and the peut sounds like pour. There is a difference between the regular and slow version.
I had the same exact problem. Everything else in my sentence was correct, but I had a heck of a time figuring out what that "eu" sound could be.
If I got marks right every time I confused "des" and "les" for some reason, I would be finished with this language by now :V
lol ye. I wish there was some practice listening to news podcasts or something just to make sure our understanding is not purely to automated voices.
you can find dictations online, with real voices - just google la dictee (there should be an accent there somewhere ;)) I found them for my (English) daughter, who is doing the Brevet this year, after only 4 -5 years in France...she struggles with dictation in french. I do them too, as I think I need even more practice, than she does!! They come with a pdf of corrections, so you can check you got it right! Also, try http://www.lepointdufle.net - loads of backup stuff on there!
Yes www.ladictee.fr is a treasure of dictations for french speakers. They have dictations for really young children/other beginners up to adults.
I recently found this resource for listening to spoken French: http://www.newsinslowfrench.com/ Hope it's helpful!
I said "however" instead of "but" and it was marked wrong as well. I'm not going to sweat it.
Yeah i agree with Dollinha its not the end of the world if you fail a lesson on Duolingo
I have the same problem of not understanding the words when said at normal speed. I usually have to slow it down to hear the words. I really hope my hearing will get better with time.
it's very hard to hear. I am hoping in the real world that people speak a lot clearer. Still... work on training your ear...
I think there's a glitch in the way it plays back - it sounds sort of compressed at normal speed. Might be worth trying a different browser (I use firefox)
The real world persons aren't always clear or easy to understamd, but you can always ask for repetition(s), slower speech and rephrasing when you talk with a real person.
You will eventually get used to all the different sounds and be able to divide the sound into comprehensible dound bites. But it takes time amd practice.
Ok ima stop for a sec. Stand up. Move back and look at this sentence closely. Why is peut manger - can eat while veut manger - want TO eat.
Sure I stuck in that TO for good measure because it sounds wierd otherwise in english, however if I'm given this to translate from english to french how would I know that I need to drop the TO. Or is dropping the TO always the case?
In French, I think that every consecutive verb after the first will be in the infinitive form. In English, a consecutive verb will be in the infinitive UNLESS the first verb is modal (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would). You might find it makes more sense if you translate "peut manger" as "is able to eat".
When translating English > French, "to" may be treated differently based on the verb it follows. "He starts to play" > "Il commence a jouer". "He stops playing" > "Il s'arrete de jouer". "He is able to play" > "Il peut jouer".
can someone please verify if the rule daniel stated in the beggining of his explanation is true?
I was never taught the word Peut or the word Mais not even veut? Did I jump to the lesson to early or what because I did not hear them before.....?
Sometimes the listening exercice is the first that uses a certain word. By time you will be able to make qualified guesses as to their spelling even though you have never seen it before.
This is really frustrating, Duolingo for the life of it would not play me the sound. I clicked the speaker multiple times, but to no avail. Other computer sounds worked.
Why on earth has somebody downvoted your comment? Your complaint happens to me and the only remedy I have found is to log off, shut down and after some seconds start up again and log on again. Of course you then have to restart your lesson. Probably you already knew that but I posted it just in case. Also to let you know that you are not alone with this problem.
That's good to know! Is the downvote used only if you disagree with the person commenting? Or could it be that someone had the same experience and didn't like it -- so they were downvoting the occurrence rather than the person commenting...?
Hi JRPlanet. No, the horrible truth is that a post gets downvoted if it is not liked. This could be for many credible reasons and some incredible ones but there is no way of knowing. I can understand upvoting... this could be that the post was very helpful or just fun but for the life of me I can see no constructive point in downvoting. If I dont like a post I can ignore it. I see no constructive reason to opinionate anonimously and unspecifically. It is stupid. If the excellent sitesurf disagrees with a post she states her case and we are all the wiser. Recently anonimity and competitiveness amongst the banking world has all but brought the world to it's knees. Not good for progress nor community..Anyway, I appreciated your post because it let me know that the problem was not mine alone, so thanks for it.
I soooo agree with much of what you said. Online anonymity has been detrimental to communication and community. People too often feel that they don't need to be kind or courteous because they can make their vile comments anonymously. I'm pleased that by far the majority of the time Duolingo users are polite and reasonable, even though we're anonymous. It makes me have hope for humanity. :-)
Why is it manger and not mange? From what I can gather, the il/elle form of manger is mange, not manger. Help me ;_;
- 75
Because it comes after the verbs "peut" and "veut" so you do not conjugate the verbs after the first ones (am with you, though, confusing language:)).
Yes, "peut" and "veut" are what we English speakers call "helping" verbs -- they "help" the infinitive -- and are the words you conjugate. The infinitive stays the same. It's really the same in English. "Eat" is the infinitive and the helping verbs further clarify: Can eat, want to eat, should eat, must eat, etc. Hope that makes sense.
This is so hard because I was so focused on the "crepe" accent that I used veux instead of veut! come on!!!! Plus, why can't she just eat chocolate crepes??
hello i am spanish speaker and i must tell "mais" is look like "mas" in spanish that means "but" but it's nobody really uses "mas" anymore they instead use "pero" which also means but and makes me think that "mais" is like "mas" as that is very outdated but i could be wrong too will i look stupid if i say "mais" ? thank
I'm sure the roots are the same, but no, "mais" is the current way to say "but" in French. You won't look stupid at all! :-)
oh i see well i hope you are correct thanks for the clarification you are very good person
It is the article (des, les) that tells if it is plural (un, une, le, la, l', du, de la, de l' are all singular articles).
Heureusement, je sais que ma soeur a des recettes de crêpes au chocolate, donc elle peut manger des crêpes et du chocolat à le même instant.
Why is "She can eat crepes,but wants chocolate" incorrect? What else is "she" going to do with chocolate if not eat it?? Surely the eating part is assumed...
Well its not incorrect in the sense, but the programme detected "manger" ("to eat") as missing and so considered your solution incorrect.
I think you refer the the first "Manger". It helps to think of it as "She is able to eat" thus using the infinitive "Manger" This is explained around half way through this thread and better than I can.
I listened to it many times and it really sounds like LES crepes, not des :-(
In this case, I agree that the beginning of des is very subtle and close to a subtle beginning of les. Nevertheless, the pronunciation is closer to des than to les to trained ears. In real life, you would be able to ask for clarification if the meaning was not clear form context.
I tested out the system and put "she can eat crepes but would rather eat chocolate" ...and, of course, got it wrong lol.
all this talk and still no-one has explained why there is No liaison between "mais" and "elle"? come on guys, help here please
"...maiselle veut manger du chocolat."( you missed s word-you wrote) I didn't miss a word only a space.This was a typo.
Someone could help me please, i wrote: "She can to eat crepes, but she wants to eat chocolate", why it's wrong?
It's only because the English translation sounds a bit awkward. In French, you use the full infinitive with the helping verb ("peut manger"), but in English, you don't say "can to eat"; instead, you say "can eat". That's true of "can," "must," and "should." However, with "want" as the helping verb, you DO use the full infinitive: "want to eat". Sorry English is such pain with all the exceptions...!
I am sorry to say but this is a WASTE OF TIME to do the tests until DUO doesn't accept the good answers. I dropped out twice when they took the correct sentences incorrect.I translated twice this kind of sentences: Que faut-il manger ensuite ?" >Que< is object after there is an inversion of the expression of "it is necessary to.".. so it is logical that the subject here:" IT " They crossed out the "it" so the sentence remained WITHOUT SUBJECT, and this was the good translation.
"Que faut-il manger ensuite ? What is it necessary to eat after." - why is it wrong? Why "it" had been crossed out?
The third was: He must be here soon. = Il faut qu'il soit ici bientôt.
Are these wrong translations? Please explain me why?
Duolingo never what peut or veut means till now. So how could it give it here?
Some time is always the first, and the way Duolingo teaches, it might be in an exercise without translation first. We are then supposed to make some research as to why things are as they are - if we do not understand it from the given correct translation. One way is to read these discussions, then ask for clarifications if they do not suffice, another way is to look it up outside of Duolingo. All ways are good and allowed, in order for us to learn.
If we're supposed to be learning, it's kinda hard to interpret a full sentence like this after never having heard it before. Sounded like she said a number of other words than "veut" - and that word hasn't even come up yet in any of my sessions. May be time to try a new app...
Why not complement your duo training with other resources? You don't need to choose either this or something else - you can have them both. Together they will strengthen your understanding and lower the back sides of each resource, as hardly none is perfect.
UIUIYY This isn't difficult. When you eat or take a little amount from sth you use the partitive, Which is the partitive? "Elle peut manger DES crêpes, mais elle veut manger DU chocolat."
In this sentence there are two partitive: DU =DE+LE and DES =DE+LES.
Altogether there are 4.partitives 1. DU(de+le) Je mange du pain / H can be aspiré/ Je mange du haricot/ du hamburger 2 DE LA = je mange de la viande 3. DE L'= you use before the mots which begins by vowel or H muet : Je boit de l'eau/ "Nous n'apprenons rien de l'histoire 4. DES = when you count what you eat: I mange des crepes, I mange des cerises, etc
Yeah, but you don't mind "first world benefits" like computers and internet though, do you? Let me know when you're headed off to another world to help the needy. I'll meet you at the airport and wave you off.
But still useful to understand as you then can react or act upon what you hear.
Je sais les hivers, je sais le froid Mais la vie sans toi, je sais pas
Why is the v in veut silent in this sentence? I listened to the slowed down version several times and still didn't recognise this word as veut.
@magikian. Mmmm. I couldn't listen to the audio on the lesson but I did do so at the top of this page and although it is barely audible, it IS there. How about typing the sentence into a site like forvo or google translate and listening toi that audio a few times, then return to this one to see if the "V" of veut begins to emerge as a sound? Bonne chance.
so why do you write des crepes and not de crepes since there isn't any adjective in between? one of the many exceptions in the french language?
It's the partitive article meaning 'some crêpes' so it is not an exception. Two examples that I can think of for using "de crêpes" would be; "Il n'a pas de crêpes" (he doesn't have crêpes) or "un plat de crêpes" (a plate of crêpes) I'm not sure what you mean about the adjective. Here's an explanation: http://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indefinite-article/
why is the 'v' in veut silent as it appears here? (I've listened a dozen times and cannot hear a the 'v'.
I hear it; it is almost insignificant, but it is there. (I listened to the voicebot at the top of this page.)
wow, I don't belive the only wrong things I got from this whole sentence were the plurals. Je suis très heureux!!!
I had ONE word wrong: du crêpes, in stead of des crêpes. It seems my brain just can't wrap around this one. It trips me up every time. Where can I find a good tutorial on "les, des, and du/de la"?
