"Elles donnent la date et l'heure."
Translation:They are giving the date and the time.
24 Comments
When you encounter problems like this, please report them. I also got dinged on this because of duolingos infamous nitpicking roulette.
In real life? Context. And sometimes (when the verb starts with a vowel), there's a liaison to help. Elles arrivent ("elle-z-arrive"). With a lot of irregular verbs, the verb will tell you that it's plural. Elles sont, elles peuvent, etc. However, with many verbs, in many Duolingo exercises, it's impossible to differentiate between elle/elles and il/ils.
I entered "elle donne" and it was accepted. Maybe the answer was changed since you took this exercise.
Well it also depends which type of exercise you get. You must have just got the audio but I had the text and had to write the english translation so I couldn't get away with that.
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In French, when spoken, how on earth can you tell if it is plural or not? I seriously cant figure that out ! the plural elles donnent sounds exactly like the singular! doesn't it?
In general, many singular/plural pronoun-and-verb combos sound identical. There is no phonetic difference between "elles donnent" and "elle donne" (or elles portent and elle porte, elles mangent and elle mange). However, when the verb starts with a vowel, there is a liaison that will tell you it's plural. "Elles arrivent" sounds like "elle-zarrive," while "elle arrive" sounds like "elle arrive," and "elles aiment" sounds like "elle-zaime," while "elle aime" sounds like "elle aime." Sometimes there are other clues, like when you hear "leur/leurs" instead of "son/sa/ses." Elles mangent leur gâteau. They eat their cake. Elle mange son gâteau. She eats her cake. Usually, in the real world, it's relatively clear from context.. .
Does it really mean 'name/fix/disclose'? Otherwise, a sentence with 'give date' would sound rather unnatural I guess.
Is there a reason saying "day" instead of "date" would be wrong? In english the two are interchangeable, especially in a sentence like this, so even though it's not a literal translation I feel like it should be correct?
OK. I know that it has been a year since you asked, so I apologize. French is a precise language. Day and date are not interchangeable.
am i the only one who dont understand what the sentence actually means? whats the context! they give the date and time? ok, now i get it!!:p
