"Is that girl nice?"
Translation:Cette fille est-elle gentille ?
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3 ways to ask a question requiring an answer yes/no:
- formal: cette fille est-elle gentille ?
- standard: est-ce que cette fille est gentille ?
- relaxed/oral: cette fille est gentille ?
"Est-ce que cette fille est gentille ?" does work, yet with the required hyphen in place between "est" and "ce"
Why not, that is correct. you could also get "elle est gentille, cette fille ?"
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I think that's wrong. It sounds like "c'est une fille gentille?" = "Is that a nice girl?" To me, that's not the same as "Is that girl nice?"
The French often use expressions using different syntax than the classic subject-verb inversion. Sometimes the object is set off with a comma at the beginning or at the end, with a statement after or before it, and a rising inflection at the end to show it is a question. This is common in French as spoken.
Trying to figure out why: est-ce qu'elle est gentille, was incorrect. I'm blanking on the reason. Because I didn't say 'girl'? Of course, that's the reason. Now, how does one ask this question using the 'est-ce que' way of asking questions?
c'est une jolie fille (beauty adjectives are placed in front of the noun)
jolie = lovely, pretty, it is about her physical beauty.
nice = gentille, agréable, amicale, it is about her friendly behavior
You've written "Is she nice" but you have not used "that girl" and you also have the masculine form of gentil instead of gentille.
Can someone tell me why "Cette fille" means "That girl"? I would have thought it meant "This girl".
cette can translate to this or that, interchangeable with no other detail.
but the backward translation can be more precise:
- that girl = cette fille-là
- this girl = cette fille-ci
"cela" is a demonstrative pronoun, to be used instead of a noun, and it translates to "that thing". So, "that thing girl" would not work.
In front of a noun, you need an adjective, not a pronoun: "cette fille"
"C'est une fille sympa" is the translation for "she/this/it is a nice girl" as a statement, and the informal translation for the question "is she/this/it a nice girl?".
"La fille est-elle gentille ?" (no comma, add an hyphen and a space before the question mark).
Yep, you've written: "the girl, is she nice" and not "that" girl. It's the difference between "la" and "cette". If there were 3 girls standing, and you said, "the girl is she nice", one would have to say, "which girl?", instead of you specifically saying "that girl", so there is difference, although it is subtle.
Yes, you need verb "être", because "est-ce que" is just an interrogative block announcing a question.
- est-ce que je suis gentille
- est-ce que tu es gentille ...
Why can't you say something like "Ça fille, est-elle sympa?" It's been a long time since I took French, but I thought I remembered that "ça" meant "that"...
"Ça" is a demonstrative pronoun; it stands alone referring to another noun. What you need here is a demonstrative adjective: ce, cet, cette. E.g., ce garçon = this/that boy. Cette fille = this/that girl. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_demonstrative.htm
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I think, it would be more appropriate if we used Cette as fille is feminine rather than using Ça. Try this : http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_demonstrative.htm
Wait, so cette means both 'that' and 'this'? I remember that it only meant 'this', so I didn't want to use it here.
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I think you'll find this useful : http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_demonstrative.htm
La fille, est-elle jolie?
I've seen other questions formed like this. What's wrong this time?
The comma doesn't belong, though that is minor, but jolie = pretty. The question asks for 'nice', which is gentille or bonne, or perhaps sympa.
The form is okay (set off by comma, that is) but "jolie" means "nice" in the sense of appearance, i.e., is she pretty? So you can say "la maison est jolie" = the house is pretty/lovely. For a person who is nice (her character/behavior), use "gentille" or "sympa".
"Sympa" for "nice" is accepted, but "Est cette fille sympa?" is marked as wrong, because "Cette fille est sympa?" was the expected formulation! In moments like these I wish Duo was a little bit smarter!
It is because the phrasing is not good French at all. The syntax of "Est cette fille sympa" mirrors the syntax of the English "Is that girl nice" but it doesn't work in French. See Sitesurf's examples of different ways to ask questions in French or consult this link: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/questions.htm
Yeah, thank you! Sometimes I forget the importance of phraseological aspect, given that some languages are more rigid than others in this regard. I expected somehow that Duolingo would tell me that I have an incorrect wording and (after suggesting me a more natural form) still accept my answer like it does with minor typos.
For your information, the checker here is a computer which compares your suggestion with all correct answers registered in the system for each sentence.
Your proposal is nowhere near any of those, so it is not just a typo but a minimum of 3 words missing: est-ce que cette fille est sympa ?
Left one 'l' out of gentille and says i used the wrong word.. surely thats a spelling error?
"un gentilé" (synonym: un ethnonyme) is another word, describing the inhabitants of a region, country or continent. For instance: "le gentilé de la France est Français" (France's inhabitants are the French)
Why can't it be: cette fille est jolie? I've learned in previous courses that joli(e)(s)=nice, pretty
'Jolie' means nice as in 'pretty', 'lovely', or 'good', not nice as in 'kind'. Both 'gentil(le)' and 'sympa' can translate to 'kind'; either would work here.
I translated as above but was informed it was incorrect. Instead the word "une" had been used. Nowhere does it say "a'.
To translate "Is that girl nice?", you do not need "une", but one of the démonstrative adjectives "ce, cet, cette, ces".
Since "fille" is feminine singular, you need the pronoun "cette fille" (= this/that girl).
Could someone please explain why sympa does not work in this situation?