66 Comments
I thought "le matin" refers to "every morning". Can this sentence also mean "I walk every morning"?
Would one not say 'je marche tout les matins' to indicate they walk every morning?
From what I've learned in Duolingo so far, the simple present in French ("Je marche.") is about equal to the simple present and present continuous tenses in English ("I walk" vs. "I am walking").
In English, the simple present tense can be used to describe usual or repeated activities (http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepresent.html). So "Je marche le matin" could translate to "I am walking in the morning." or "I walk in the morning." the latter of which essentially equates to "I walk every morning." or "I walk most mornings."
352
My answer was "I am walking in the morning." and it was not accepted. I wonder why?
I think it can mean that walking is part of your normal morning routine. But if you wanted to say that you were walking EVERY morning, without fail, wouldn't you say "chaque matin" or "tous les matins"?
No, you can't, that is not the way it is constructed in French : je marche le matin, le soir, le lundi, le jour, la nuit...
"Why" is rarely a useful question when it comes to how languages work. You just have to accept that some things are as they are. Nobody will arrest you for saying, "dans le matin", it just isn't conventional French - it sounds funny.
"Why?" is an important question for all students to feel comfortable asking. Even if the answer is "because it's an idiom" or "just because that's the way French people speak". When one is new and does not know, it's hard to construct a more sophisticated question.
I tend to think of it as 'dans' meaning 'inside'. And you wouldn't say you were walking 'inside' the morning, would you? That's how I remember it :P
Is it an idiom? I could not understand from existing comments how "I + walk + the + morning" becomes "I walk in the morning"
To convey the idea of "every morning" (repeated action/habit), you can say "tous les matins" or "chaque matin" or simply "le matin". All mean the same and are frequently used.
This also works with other moments of the day (l'après-midi, le soir, la nuit) and days of the week (le lundi, le mardi, etc.)
I left a comment earlier which was probably misunderstood. I deleted it.
On a different note, I am slowly getting some idea of 'french way of thinking' which you and others keep mentioning. It is starting to make sense.
Your sentence ("I am walking in the morning.") describes what the speaker is doing at that moment: It is morning and she is walking. The French sentence ("Je marche le matin.") states that the speaker often walks in the mornings. It may not even be morning when she says it. So it is more accurately translated as, "I (often/usually) walk in the morning."
This should be correct. Ketutsf's reply above is inferring a context to the sentence. However Ketutsf is only giving one scenario.
An acceptable scenario: Marie - Quand vais-tu marcher demain? Moi - Je marche le matin.
I also thougt le matin referred to every morning. But of course it was marked wrong. Why?
yes, "le matin" means "tous les matins", but I guess Duolingo expected the simpler version.
I don't quite understand the grammatical order of this sentence... The way it is written looks like "le matin" is the direct object of "marche" (what I guess is not correct, right?). Why isn't there a preposition before "le matin" or intead of "le"? Something like "Je marche à matin" or "Je marche dans le matin"...
The preposition just isn't required in French. It isn't really required in English either. "Mornings, I walk to work," is standard English. And "I work evenings," is a pretty common expression. Somehow, "I walk mornings," doesn't sound as natural, but it is not ungrammatical.
When I hear "I work mornings" (very common as you pointed out), I think it's implied that you work all morning or most of the morning. So hearing "I walk mornings," I think maybe it sounds strange because there is a similar implication and it would be unusual to walk all or most of the morning.
According to Sitesurf (see reply to .tortue above), the construction implies habitual action in French. I agree with you that the same word order has a further connotation in English.
In fact, it is very close to "I work the morning shift." So "mornings" really is behaving like a direct object, which is what Diogo.Alvarez said. I just thought it might be helpful to people to see a (superficially) similar construction in English.
"le matin", "le soir", "l'après-midi", "le soir", "le vendredi" are used to date an event.
"marcher" does not have a direct object (ex: we don't walk the dog, nous promenons le chien).
The notion of "in the morning (during the morning)" refers to a duration in French:
"dans la matinée", "dans la soirée", "dans l'après-midi", "dans la semaine", "dans la journée de vendredi"
Thank you all for the answers, they were very helpful. So let me see if I got this: "Je marche le matin" is implying a habit like "I (usually) walk in the mornings", and "Je marche dans la matinée" is something like "I spend my morning walking" (completely different structure, I know, just used it to be clear about the idea of the sentence). Am I correct? (please, say I am... hahaha)
For one thing, "promener" is a transitive verb, so you use the reflexive form to say that you are walking:
-
Je promene mon chien. = I walk my dog.
-
Je me promene. = I take a walk.
-
Je marche. = I walk.
Marcher is rather active, it can be fast and even sporty.
"se promener" is idle and slow.
- 1721
"Marcher" is simply "to walk", whereas "promener" (or) "se promener" has to do with taking (sb/sth) for a walk or to go for a walk yourself. So "marcher" is just saying "walk" as opposed to some other means of transportation. "Promener" is about having a stroll (i.e., no destination in mind and you come back to where you started).
Your sentence is correct English, but it doesn't have the right meaning. Your sentence is about what you are currently doing or what you intend to do the next day. The French, "Je marche le matin" is about habitual action. So "I (usually/always) walk in the morning" is a better translation.
See Sitesurf and my comments on this page.
It is just that English requires a preposition in this construction:
"I walk in the morning." or "I walk during the morning."
Alternatively, you can leave out the word "the," and then the preposition is not needed:
"I walk every morning." or even just "I walk mornings."
All of these are reasonable translations of the French "Je march le matin."
- 1514
"I am walking in the morning" was marked incorrect. Is that appropriate?
From all/most other verb examples so far we've seen that the Noun + verb (I eat) and noun + am + verb + ing (I am eating) are both acceptable from the present tense conjugation in French, is that not correct in this instance?
As I understand it, the expression "le matin" (or "le lundi" or "le soir" or whatever) specifically denotes an habitual action. It is unusual in English to use the progressive tense in this construction, although I'm sure I could concoct a circumstance in which it would work.
"I walk in the morning" carries the same habitual implication that the French sentence does. It is a clear and simple translation.
"I am walking in the morning," without further context, could mean the same thing, but most readers would assume you were describing a single event as it was happening.
Note: I am not sure how you would describe such a single event in French. Maybe, "Je marche dans la matinée", but maybe you'd have to be more specific: "En ce moment, je marche dans la matinée," or "Je suis en train de marcher dans la matinée". It all sounds quite odd to me.
In English, you can say either 'in the morning' or 'in the mornings'. I gave the latter as an answer and was given wrong. Must remember ..... literal translations only :-)
Perhaps that's because "I walk in the mornings" would translate to "je marche LES matinS"?
Pretty sure not. As I understand it, the French expression of this thought is always in the singular.
It's absurd. When I input "Je marche le matin," as a translation of "I walk in the morning," Duo told me it was wrong and correct answer was "la matinée." Then what is this question?
- 775
Matin is one of those words that can refer to a point in time (division) or it can refer to a period of time (duration).
Division morning is matin. Duration morning is matinée.
I walk in the morning = matin because it is about a point in time. I walk all morning is matinée because it is about a period of time.
Expect to see the feminine form when using duration constructions.
you could use "la matinée" but with the following formula: je marche dans la matinée, meaning in the course of the morning.
Are these translations inaccurate? "I take walks in the morning." -or- "I take a walk in the mornings."
- 1610
take a walk is often used to talk about slower-paced walks and hence it's best translated to French using the verb 'se promener'
Could someone explain this sentence to me? Why not "Je marche dans le matin?"
There is not much to explain. It is just that the French construction is different from the English one.
Can you explain these types of constructions? Or maybe explain some irregular sentence types? thanks
je marche le matin, l'après-midi, le soir, la nuit, au milieu de la nuit, le dimanche, tous les lundis
= I walk in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at night, in the middle of the night, on Sundays, every Monday
But duo says that je bois dans la nuit is correct so is it just the verb marcher that doesn't have le?
Nuit is a duration in your construction, so a preposition denoting being within that period works. Thats why northern guy pointed out that dans la matinee, soiree, etc is fine. And marcher has je marche le soir, so not sure about the article issue.
It sounds wrong but I can't think of a reason why. Both "I walk at dawn" and "I walk at night" are fine.
In French:
je marche à l'aube (dawn)
je marche au crépuscule (twilight/dusk)
je marche le matin
je marche à midi
je marche l'après-midi
je marche le soir
je marche en soirée
je marche la nuit
@squigglylines - sometimes the only "why" is - that's not how we say it. True for all languages.
Would 'I walk mornings' be OK? As in 'Do you walk in the afternoon?' 'No, I walk mornings'. I have heard this in English.
I wrote 'I am walking in the morning' which was marked wrong but is in fact perfectly correct. I f the question was 'are you walking tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon', the answer would be as I wrote. This should be accepted as a correct answer. Also 'je + verb' translates as 'I + act' or 'I am + acting' in every context.
Your sentence is perfectly correct. Yet, a translation for the French sentence, it is a misinterpretation:
I am walking in the morning = je vais marcher demain matin, j'irai marcher le matin
This was answered correctly, however two sentences earlier "in the", as a time-frame was given as"a", not "le" ... confusing.
