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- "I am fine, thank you."
"I am fine, thank you."
Translation:Je vais bien, merci.
107 Comments
"Je suis bien, merci" would be the answer to a question like "Es-tu bien assis ?" (Are you well seated?) or "As-tu assez chaud ?" (Are you warm enough?)
Ca va, merci. Is that answer okay?( sorry, i can't type the correct Ca...)
In fact, I answered "Je suis bien, merci" (a literal translation) and it was judged correct.
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Hi RobinSeptiplie. I did one language at a time, but now feel it is better to stick to just one language till one gains a reasonable fluency. Wish you all the best for your language studies.
Hi! Do you know which level you get when you finish a duolingo course, please? Thank you
Bien is the adverb well, and adverbs modify verbs. Va is a verb, so you can't say "It is going good" or "I'm good". You have to say "It's going well" or "I am well." Good is an adjective, so if you say "I am good," it implies you're a good person who does good and charitable things like feeding and clothing the homeless and fighting for the oppressed women in Iran. Someone who asks "How are you?" doesn't want to know that, they want to know how you are feeling at the current time.
Exactly. This is one of those cases in which learning French also teaches English grammar! For instance, I never learned the correct use of "whom" in English, despite years of primary schooling, until I took French.
I got a word bank and while the answer I put was accepted (ça va bien, merci), the "correct" answer was "je vais bien, merci." neither "je" nor "vais" were words in the bank.
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Same here. Not sure why you were downvoted. Ça was even capitalised, which is always the giveaway that it's the first word of the answer
Just curious, I know that merci translates to mean "thank you" in English, but is there a part of the word that specifies that the speaker is thanking "you"?
I'm sorry if my wording confused anyone, but I just came up with this question so don't know how to come up with an accurate query. Thank you in advance for your help and patience!
"merci" does not tell who you are thanking.
You have to add the preposition "à" (= to) + a stressed pronoun to personalize your thanks:
- merci à toi, merci à lui, merci à elle, merci à vous, merci à eux, merci à elles
No, because "I am fine" by itself just means that you are in good health.
I also thought that would work but I learned "Je suis d'accord" means "I agree" rather than "I am fine".
I also just typed "je vais bien, merci" and it didn't take it. I think this should be corrected!
Yes, this is the conjugation of verb "aller" in present:
je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont
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I would say " Ca va bien, merci." or "Merci, ca va bien" any comments from a french person???
Like my prof says, "don't think in English when trying to answer in French"
Thank you your comments really help me to understand this question...... Merci
Why is it just, "ça va, merci" instead of, "ça va bien, merci"? Can a native speaker explain?
So: the correct solution is given, not as Je vais bien, merci but as Ça va, merci. I put Bien, merci, and it was marked incorrect. What is wrong with it?
In both languages, there are dozens of possible alternative and idiomatic phrases to mean you are in good health.
The most literal and safe translation for "I am fine" is "Je vais bien".
Isn't "Je suis bien, merci" the literal translation of the text ? ( It would mean "I am well, thank you" )
This is not a literal translation but this is what it means to French people.
This side meaning was not intended. The sentence is only about my health: je vais bien = I am fine.
I put "je vais bien, merci beaucoup" and was marked wrong getting sick of these corrections!
In French they usually ask 'Comment ça va?' or 'Ça va?', which can be literally translated as 'How goes it?', which you also hear in English. This might be because in French they have different ways to say 'you' so this is simpler and as such the answer would be 'Ça va bien, merci', which you could translate as 'It goes well, thank you'.
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it did not give me options for "suis" or "ça va" so apparently "Je vais bien, merci" which I'm pretty sure translates to "I am going to be fine, thanks" but in all fairness i am wrong more often than not
Please read the whole thread about these phrases that don't translate word for word in either way of translation.
"aller bien" is the phrasal verb used to mean "to be (doing) fine" - a matter of health.
"je suis bien" is the word for word translation for "I am fine", but it does not mean that I am doing well, but that I am comfortable - a matter of temperature or body position or other criteria.
So, "I am going to be fine" translates to "je vais aller bien".
The confusion is because we say 'I am fine' when what we should be saying is 'I am doing fine'. 'Doing' is a verb and so 'fine' is an adverb. Hopefully that makes sense to you.
'Ça va' actually means 'It goes', like in the English question 'How goes it?' which usually means 'How are you?'. 'Ça' means 'it, this or that' and 'va' is the third person singular form of the verb 'aller', to go.
This is not a literal translation. 'Ça va bien, merci', which you could translate as 'It goes well, thank you' is closer to a literal translation. In English we have the phrase 'How goes it?', which would be close to the French question that this would be the answer to 'Comment ça va?'. In English we would answer 'I am fine, thank you' but in French they would answer 'Ça va bien, merci', which you literally could translate as 'It goes well, thank you'.
I answered with ça va comme ci comme ça, merci and it said i was wrong but doesnt it also work
"Comme ci comme ça" means "not so good" and not "fine". By the way, the French don't use it often.
"Je suis très bien" is not about my health; it means "I am comfortable" (well seated, warm enough...).
Because the answer is 'I am well, thank you', you need 'bien' because this means 'well'. So the answer should be 'Ça va bien, merci', which you literally could translate as 'It goes well, thank you'.
No, "I am fine/ça va" s a reply to "how are you?/ça va ?" just mean that you are in good health and feeling well in general.
Wait, so if someone asks, 'Ça va?' you can just respond back with 'Ça va', akin to the English 'How do you do'?
From my experience 'Ça va?' is a shortened version of 'Comment ça va?', which means 'how are you' or a more literal translation would be 'how goes it'. The correct reply would be 'Ça va bien, merci', which you could translate as 'It goes well, thank you'. Most of the time people just ask 'Ça va?' to which you usually just reply 'Ça va bien'. If someone replies 'Ça va' it usually means they are none committal and is sometimes accompanied by a shrug of their shoulders.
I put "Je suis d'accord, merci". That should be "I am okay, thanks" right? Wouldn't that be just as valid as "Je suis bien, merci"?
No, that is too far from the usual "I am fine" = "je vais bien"
je suis d'accord = I agree
je suis bien, merci = I feel good, thanks
Je suis d'accord would literally translate to "I am in agreeance." or "I am agreeing."
