34 Comments
That expression is idiomatic, the French personalize the mention of the date with "nous" or "on":"nous sommes mercredi" or "on est en février".
What about "tomorrow, it will be wednesday?" Still "demain nous sommes mercredi"?
for whatever reasons, French people do not like our future tense.
so they often replace it by a simple present or by a near future:
- demain nous sommes (vs nous serons) mercredi
- demain nous allons partir (vs nous partirons) pour Paris
merci. très claire. one last question: "demain nous allons être mercredi." C'est possible?
I suppose Duo has realized that what the French like and how their statements translate into English does not mean the tenses have to stay the same (Think of sentences that use "depuis").
"Tomorrow will be Wednesday" was accepted as a correct translation (July 5, 2015), which indeed it should be because it conveys the same sense as the French sentence.
I was very surprised by the correct translation for this question, so I decided to consult the discussion for further clarification. I was even more shocked by the number of comments critical of Duo's methods and effectiveness. Firstly, those comments do not help other users to expand their understanding (which is the purpose of the discussions), and they are unnecessarily critical. I have enjoyed learning French via Duolingo, and am very grateful that this FREE program is available! There have been confusing grammar usages in the French language - such as in the "nous sommes" in this sentence. However, I have found that I eventually catch on to the patterns through repetition and correction. The dreaded "dung-dung's" that sound-off my poorly-translated answers are just as useful at facilitating my understanding of "correct" French as the times I answer correctly. Thank you for teaching me a second language, Duolingo! What a gift.
You don't use a pronoun and the noun it represents back to back in English. So you don't need "it" in the sentence. The French may do this, but in English we don't. Like you wouldn't say "Jennifer she is a girl". It is either "Jennifer is a girl" or "She is a girl".
If you were emphasizing it to help someone who is confused what day of the week it is you may well say "tommorrow it is wednesday".
Wow sometimes I feel like I need to learn more English before I learn french.
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There are several ways to say it. These are all correct but whether Duo accepts them equally in every situation, I don't know.
- Demain nous sommes mercredi
- Demain on est mercredi
- Demain c'est mercredi
Referring to time is very confusing in French. You can say 'Il est midi', but not 'C'est midi', but at the same time 'Il est mercredi' is not correct and 'C'est mercredi' is. :/
I agree, the construction changes with times of the day, weekdays, months, seasons, years, centuries...
- il est huit heures, il est midi, il est midi
- nous sommes/on est lundi, mardi... // aujourd'hui, c'est lundi, mardi...
- nous sommes/on est en janvier, février...
- nous sommes/on est au printemps, en été/automne/hiver // c'est le printemps, l'été, l'automne, l'hiver.
- nous sommes/on est en 2017 (deux mille dix-sept)
- nous sommes/on est au XXIe (vingt-et-unième) siècle
You don't need "it" because "tomorrow" can be the subject of "is", whereas "demain" is rarely a subject.
I bring this up alot but in this recording the man pronounces 'sommes' as two syallables instead of just one. Should 'sommes' be pronounced as 1 syllables or 2? Is it just a matter of preference/region which pronounciation is used or is there a guideline for it?
Thanks in advance
In the South of France, in poetry and in songs, the mute -e is often pronounced as [uh].
Tomorrow is Wednesday where it is the subject? English is my second language, however I understand that the word order is subject, verb, object. Isn't tomorrow and adverb? Would any English native clarify this grammar please? Shouldn't it be Tomorrow it is Wednesday?
A dictionary can usually answer that question for you. But even without one, what is "tomorrow"? It is the name given to the day after today. A name is a noun. Some words can represent more than one part of speech. But if you need more proof, here you go:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tomorrow
Is demain a noun or an adverb of time? If it is an adverb where is the subject in the English translation?
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re: sitesurf's comment. While the French may not like to use our future tense, in English we would accept and understand "Tomorrow will be Wednesday." Although, If today is Tuesday, tomorrow is Wednesday....
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Is it really wrong to translate this as "tomorrow it is wednesday"? Isn't that the actual literal translation?
