39 Comments
Be careful: the pronunciation of "chemises" is wrong. (I am a French native speaker)
The "s" of chemises shouldn't be that tough [SS] sound, it should be a smooth [z] sound, like in the word "to tease".
Use that sound instead:
[Reported: 03/13/2015]
Notice how the anglais translates to "man shirts", found that pretty funny.
Is it just like Portuguese that single s between vowels always sound like z?
The word "chemise" souds just like "sameej", the hindi word for upper body clothing. Is there any relation?
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Well, it is true that French is an Indo-european language so it is a possibility. However the languages have evolved in such different directions that it seems unlikely that the modern variants would both so closely resemble such an ancient root.
Maybe when Duo gets around to offering Sanscrit, we will find the answer.
No, there is no such word as "sameej" in Sanskrit, I think it's taken from Urdu. Hindi has many words from various languages like Sanskrit, Urdu, Maithili, etc. etc. And I really wish Duo to teach Sanskrit. Once I started learning it I realised all European and Asian languages are closely connected to it, and hence to themselves.
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I was thinking more along the lines that if sameej is present in Sanskrit then there would seem to be a common root. If it is not present, then they may have a common root but likely not through the Indo-Eruoprean connection. Shirt does not translate into anything like chemise in the Lithuanian branch of the Balt tree or the German branch of the Germanic tree. If it's not present in the Sanskrit stem of Hindi it seems more like a mutation generated by travelers or something.
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Interesting. The hindi word for shirt is "kameez", and addtionally the hindi word for pants/trousers is "pataloon", pronounced as "puh-thuh-loon", to be compared with "le pantalon" in French.
In my native language, Urdu, which is a lot like Hindi, 'shameez' is what we call an upper body clothing as well.
The French word "chemise" and the hindi word "क़मीज़" (for "shirt"), along with similar words in Urdu etc., are indeed related.
I had to stop by when I first learnt the word "chemise", because it sounded close to the word "قميص" in Arabic (my first langauge) which pronounced as "kamees" . Also the spanish word "camisa" meaning shirt originated from the arabic word "kamees" which may be in turn transferred to other languages as well. Historically, word "kamees" or "chemise" used earlier for a piece of clothes that is worn on skin under other clothes to prevent body odor and oils to get to those clothes.
"L'homme a de chemise" and "L'homme a des chemises" is there any difference in their pronunciation? I got really confused about this.
The sentence shown was "L'homme a des chemises."
To clear up confusion, here's a translation of each word separately: • L'homme - the man • A - conjugated version of the verb avoir, meaning "to have", in this case meaning "has" • Des - doesn't have a direct translation into English, can either translate to "some" or be left out, mainly an indicator of a plural noun • Chemises - plural version of the word "shirts"
All put together, it means "The man has (some) shirts."
In Urdu, Shirts are called kameez(or shameez) and pants are patloon like the french pantalon
I was told this word could be used for vest ( in the english meaning as something you wear under your clothes for extra warmth) it also gives it as one of the translations when you click on the word. So why has it penalised me?
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When Duo wants you to give a less common alternative meaning for a word they will usually expose you to that usage beforehand and then construct an example where that less common meaning makes more sense.
I want them to use only the most common meanings as answers for their questions because that is what I want to learn.
If Duo allowed vest as the proper translation of chemise I might get the idea that is what most French speakers are referring to when I read or hear the word.
F.W.I.W. I looked up chemise in three different dictionaries and vest or anything like it was not listed as a possible definition so it must be pretty uncommon.
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Probably not because une chemise can also be translated as a folder: http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/chemise/14953
i do not get why des is there and when i put the mouse over it the translation is 'from the'. 'The man has from the shirts' does not make see
I put down "The man has some shirts," and it was counted wrong. Why? It said the answer is, "The man has shirts," which is also correct. But up until now, whenever des is used, it shows both "some ___" and then just the word without the "some" to be correct. I am confused.
Why does this man have skirts...? Is he just really feminine, or is he Scottish? (Or whichever place men wear skirts?)
"Chemise" and "chemises" sound the same. It's the "des" that clues us in to the fact that we're dealing with the plural here.
But note, as mentioned elsewhere on this page, that "chemises" should be pronounces with a voiced "z" sound, not a hard/unvoiced "ss".
I had not completed my answer when the program jumped ahead to the answer...
