"J'aime la confiture."
Translation:I like jam.
123 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
You should be able to. I also got it wrong, and when I held my mouse under the word "J'aime" I received "I like" and "I love" as translation.
Here is what several sites had to say about it:
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/aimer.htm http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/aimer-to-like-to-enjoy-to-love-and-to-be-in-love http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french/aimer/1925?q=aimer (see bullet #4) http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english/aimer/1925 (see point #2)
This should be a cut and dry explanation) . I mean if Larousse got it wrong, then we are all in trouble :-/
1709
The other 3 are masculine. Jam is the only option that matches the feminine article.
Not technically, the reason 'la' is there is because it comes after j'aime. anytime you use an appreciative verb (like aimer) followed by an object, it must be followed by a definite article like 'la' or 'le'. It does not necessarily imply that you mean 'the', it's just required by the french language.
However, it could also mean 'I like the jam' as that is an alternative meaning to this sentence.
2048
I believe one of the translations should be " I love preserves ." Preserves ending in " s "
this is a wild guess, correct me if im wrong. to emphasize on THE jam, the one that stand on the table in front of you, you could say j´aime cette confiture. to express a general preference i guess you cant let out the article in french like in english so it has to go with a "la".
edit: i´ve just noticed that this is explained in more detail in the hints of the section "food"
marmelade: "Préparation de fruits frais que l'on fait cuire avec du sucre ou un sirop jusqu'à ce qu'ils prennent l'aspect d'une bouillie épaisse pouvant ensuite être conservée plusieurs mois." So it's any jam or preserves. "marmelade" is also used figuratively to mean "crushed to a pulp, smashed up" and even "a confused situation".
No, according to the http://www.cnrtl.fr/lexicographie/marmelade, "marmelade" can be made from apples, green tomatoes, or apricots. On the other hand, there are more google hits for "confiture" of these fruits, so I guess for most francophones "marmelade" refers to things made from citrus fruits.
Only advice I can give is either practice until you just kind of start figuring it out (I am at the point I can guess most new french words gender, I'm sure their are loose rules to this but no one rule would apply to all words) or as you are memorizing new words remember the le or la as well.
ie. Instead of just beurre for butter memorize le beurre
This is just a question in general for French. How can you tell if a word is masculine or feminine? In Spanish, feminine words tend to end in '-a' and masculine words tend to end in '-o', but in French, I cannot find any correlation between masculine and feminine words. Please explain how they differentiate masculine words from feminine words in French. Merci.
That is not far off from what it is supposed to sound like. http://www.forvo.com/search-fr/J'aime/
It won't accept this apostrophe in the link, so just type in "J'aime" then press chercher or search.
831
What is grammatically different with the translation of this sentence and the translation of the earlier sentence :"Tu manges le poulet", which was translated into "You eat THE chicken", while "You eat chicken" was rejected. Why is the above sentence not translated into "I like the jam" (Refer also to my comment under "Tu manges le poulet").
Why "I like to eat jam" is "J'aime manger de la confiture" but "I like jam" is "J'aime manger la confiture"? In the former, the literal translation is "I like to eat some jam" but in the latter, it is "I like the jam". It seems like there is inconsistency.
How do you translate the following:
1a. "I like to eat jam." (A general statement about my preference)
2a. "I like to eat some jam." or "I would like to eat some jam." (I say it to a waiter in a restaurant when ordering.)
3a. "I like to eat some jam." (A few types of jam or a certain types of jam)
4a. "I like to eat the jam." (A specific jam, say, the jam on the table)
1b. "I like jam." (A general statement about my preference)
2b. "I like some jam." or "I would like some jam."(I say it to a waiter in a restaurant when ordering.)
3b. "I like some jam." (A few types of jam or a certain types of jam)
4b. "I like the jam." (A specific jam, say, the jam on the table)
1213
I wish Duo would make up its mind re 'like' vs 'love' when it comes to food, etc.. This time I wrote 'love' because last time under a food category I wrote 'like' and it was wrong.