47 Comments
That's true enough but the sentence is saying more than that: that they're going out to eat dinner.
But in common English, "out to eat" is what everyone says, regardless of the time of day. "Dine" is rare.
I am sick of watching the English language decline. We (Americans), used to say, "Out for breakfast and/or lunch (never out to lunch). But we would go out To dinner (or to dine). These were the polite ways your grandparents spoke.. but somewhere along the way parents stopped teaching these things. It is a loss to our culture, and one of reasons why I am respectful of the French.
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Imagine then what we English think about what you Americans have done to our language. ;-) ;-) ;-)
The audio (to my anglophone Quebecer ears) is clearly "Elles sortent". The singular version "elle sort" sounds different. "Elles sortent" sounds almost like it is one word ellesortent, and the ending on "sortent" has a TUH sound to it. "Elle sort" sounds like two distinct words, like there is a momentary pause between the two, and the ending on "sort" is a hard stop....almost like the T isn't there. Elle SAHR. I'm not very good at explaining sounds. Maybe try typing the two into Google translate and use the audio button to hear the difference. Google translate can give some very bad translations, but the audio is usually pretty good.
I made the same mistake, I put singular. I guess it is too soon for me to make the difference. Thank you for the explanation.
I did just what you suggested and noticed the difference. Also, many thanks for your explanation! To my Brazilian ears they both sounded the same, but I think I might be starting to be able to tell them apart!
Off topic question: Is there a reason you take Portuguese lessons as a Brazilian? :)
I don't: I just took one of the "exams" out of curiosity and then got awarded all of the points up to that point. I even tried to reset the points I got but couldn't figure how to do it :)
I listened to the Google translate audio, and neither the singular nor the plural conjugations sound (to my BC ears) anything like the Duo audio. Good suggestion though. I'm going to take advantage of Google's audio when I'm translating from here on. Thanks.
I thnk the google translation is much more human sounding and there is a clear clear difference. I find the voice of duolingo very unclear mixing d and b and n and m quite easily as well as the clipping of an obviously electronic voice being mistaken for a language sound I wish you would use a much cleaner human voice.
This is exactly why it is so difficult to understand french..the sound differences are so slight, particularly when French is generally spoken so rapidly.
dîner is a verb (to have dinner), and also a noun (le dîner = dinner). It is being used as a verb here: They are going out to have dinner.
Agree. Even more literally, it could be considered "They go out to dine." That would line up the infinitives in both French and English.
As a native English speaker, 'they go out to dine' sounds like they are in the 1920s. I would much more likely say 'they go out to eat'...
They're going out to lunch would also be fine; it's plural and diner can mean either lunch or dinner
Depends on where you're from. In France dejeuner does mean lunch, but in North America it means breakfast.
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This is another case of Duolingo not understanding idiomatic English, where going out "to eat" means the same as going out "to dine" and is a much more likely turn of phrase.
I had a typo in my translation. diner with 1 "n" instead of 2. So what happens in that case.
Sortir means to go out. Obtenir means to get (out). If you type "They get out the dinner" into Google Translate it will use the sortent form, but this is not correct.
Actually, "sortir" can also mean to take out, as in to remove from an enclosure, like a cabinet. But in that case it would be more logical to say "sortir le diner", to take the dinner out, rather than "sortir diner" (to go out to dinner).
Not a native English speaker, but I wrote "they go out dining" and although I can see why the other two suggestions are correct I'm wondering if my reply doesn't translate to one possible meaning of the French sentence.
You are technically correct to use the gerund form, dining, but it sounds very awkward to a native speaker's ear. They go out to dine sounds more natural, though very formal. Most people (from western Canada at least) would say either "They go out to eat." or "They go out for breakfast/lunch/dinner/a snack."
Thank you. Yes, you're right. But it sounds like someone could say "yesterday I went out dining with a couple of friends..." although I agree it is rare. I will stick with "go out for dinner" at Duolingo when I translate this sentence.
Yes, you could indeed say it. But it is formal, so you need to be aware of that.
I'm from the UK and I agree with Bonnie - technically correct but rarely, if ever, spoken.
It's an unfortunate sentence. In belgian french "dîner" is to eat lunch, not to eat dinner.
The translation presented to me was "they go out to dinner." Not sure about that one!! It should be "they go out to dine" or "they go out for dinner"
Can anyone tell me why it's "elles sortent dîner" and not "elles sortent pour dîner"?
The key to hearing whether the subject is singular (she) or plural (they) is the "T" sound at the end of the word sortent. In this case, the "T" is well enunciated and indicates that elles is plural.
Also when you listen to this slowly rather than at the normal speech..elles sortent is not obvious just because it is slowed down. It will always be a problem for my English ears, until the context alone will make it clear
