"Her only dress is black."

Translation: Sa seule robe est noire.

[AdamBagnall]

The program suggests I use "elle" and than says I'm incorrect

[karlita8]

Can someone help me understand why it can't be "sa robe seule"

It doesn't seem like a BAGS

[MahjabinCh]

Its actually BANGS with the N meaning numbers, (so quantity as well) and her dress is 'one' cos its her only one

[algarf87]

Could someone please let me know what BANGS stands for? Thanks for the help!

[Kelly-Rose]

Quite generally:

---

B: beauty

A: age

N: number

G: goodness

S: size

---

[northernguy]

algarf87

Your question has already been answered farther down the page.

[tylersnothere]

well, I think quantities come first, too, but I'm not sure

[northernguy]

Sa robe seule seems like it would be her dress alone is black.

[juanjo.gro]

Je crois aussi que "Robe" est femenine

[tushargupt2]

Shouldn't the adjective seule come after robe?

[Caro9429]

I thought that too, from past experience. Maybe that is formal?

[northernguy]

Caro9429

Some adjectives go in front of the noun, some go after, a small number can be placed in either position. Placing the adjective in front or after a noun is based on your intended meaning.

Adjectives which refer to the inherent, subjective, figurative qualities go in front. There is a tool called B.A.G.S. which helps capture that category of adjectives. (Beauty, Age, Goodness or badness, Size except when referring to people) Screening adjectives with B.A.G.S tool will help you quickly determine where to place adjectives because it indicates adjectives which have mostly subjective/figurative/inherent qualities.

Only (seul/e) goes in front in her only dress because she may well have other dresses. She may be using them for rags, they may be soiled, they may be out of fashion so she won't wear them, she may not have them with her so they are not available. Only means just that she has no others for the purposes of the discussion that is being held. It may be that there really are no other dresses but maybe not. Subjective, figurative, inherent.

Objective/literal/classifying adjectives go after the noun. Seul/e placed after the noun changes the meaning from subjective only to objective alone. That's because robe seule means the dress is literally, objectively alone. There are actually no other black objects present. Some objects are classified as black (her dress) and all others are classified as not black. Objective, literal, classifying.

Most adjectives, except for the B.A.G.S. grouping, go after the noun.

[gmarwaha]

La seule robe qu'elle a est noire. This may not be very elegant but it's not wrong!

[Nannette3]

True, but you're not playing the game. We haven't gotten to that yet.

[gmarwaha]

How so?

[Nannette3]

"qu'elle a" is another clause, and I don't think we've done that yet.

[gmarwaha]

que + elle = qu'elle; and 'a' is just avoir conjugated.

[northernguy]

You changed the sentence by adding the verb to have (avoir) to the verb to be (être). To make that work you changed sa to elle, added que and moved the subject from the beginning of the sentence to the middle.

The result is that the sentence is no longer about the dress but is now about what she has, which just happens to be a dress. It is not the sentence you were given to translate.

Other than that it was pretty good.

[Nirali0809]

Why can't we say elle instead of sa??

[northernguy]

elle = she

sa = her

sa seule robe/her only dress ..not ...elle seule robe/she only dress

[claugorei]

"Robe" est femenine