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- "Sommes-nous mauvais ?"
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302
I answered "Are we wrong?" Duolingo offers "wrong" as a translation for mauvais, but it didn't accept my answer...?
"Are we wrong?" as the opposite of "are we right?" is "avons-nous tort ?" as the opposite of "avons-nous raison ?" both as set phrases, using the verb "avoir" and a noun (un tort/une raison).
As you can tell, there is a big difference with the correct translation shown above "we are bad" = "nous sommes mauvais(e)s"..
However "this is a wrong answer" does translate to "ceci est une mauvaise réponse".
1073
I answered "Sommes nous mauvaises" was this marked incorrect because I left out the hyphen?
In French there are 3 ways to ask questions, from very formal (with inversion Verb-Subject pronoun), to standard (with an interrogative adverb upfront) and a casual (mostly oral) one, with basically takes the active form and just adds a question mark at the end (orally: voice raising at the end):
- sommes-nous mauvais ? (are we bad?)
- est-ce que nous sommes mauvais ? (is it that we are bad?)
- nous sommes mauvais ? (we are bad?)
Yeah, and for some reason the female voice during my practice said it completely different. The link you sent me has perfect pronunciation. I've also heard some other errors like 'à plus tard' being pronounced as 'à plusss tard' as well in one of the basics if I remember correctly, and some other examples where the voice doesn't pronounce the 't' in 'est' when the word after starts with a vowel'. I also heard 'Oeuf' pronounced as 'ou-euf' instead of 'euf' by the voice.
This site is really great, fun, and addictive, but I hope Duolingo fixes some of the errors in the pronunciation of the female voice.
After 5 years, the woman's audio has not been improved and gross errors are still to be heard. This is why it is recommended to use extra resources, like forvo.com.
826
I forgot that the computer does not read the question mark at the end of the sentence and got it wrong asking: We are bad? Question mark added makes this statement a question.
It is the French schwa. The sound of the ending -e is 'uh', just like the one you have in "je, ne, me, de..." etc. It is usually a sign of careful enunciation, a common trend in the south-west of France and it is required in versified poetry.
More info here: https://frenchcrazy.com/2013/04/the-french-schwa.html/