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- Topic: French >
- "Il te lit le menu."
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hey, not sure if you speak or have learned Spanish, but this is the same grammar deal as in Spanish.... Te is an indirect object pronoun. Soo translated from grammar to English, te means "to you", and the verb of what they're doing to you, comes after it. So if you want to say "he reads to you", just think that in French it's backwards and you're going to say "to you he reads". te lit. The same for the Indirect Object Pronouns to me, to him, to us, etc. It's weird at first, but you get used to it :)
He you reads the menu...ok French. I know things are backwards in accordance with English but this is weird.
The proper English sentence is: "He reads you the menu."
And that is also excepted. "He reads you the menu" is literally translated, but not proper English. At least at my understanding.
Hi Samy1979. Actually it is."He reads you a (the) menu" works the same as "He writes you a (the) letter". Putting "You" at the end of the sentence necessitates the inclusion of the word "To" as in "He reads the letter (menu) to you".
Because reading something to someone and for someone isn't necessarily the same thing.
On the speaking exercise, I tried to say it, Duolingo said I failed. But I said it EXACTILY right!
Yes. You are not alone. Please do post it on "Post a problem" because nothing can be done with it here.
I thought "He reads to you the menu" would be a clearer translation but it wasn't accepted.
To be more specific, when the indirect object is sandwiched between the verb and the direct object, there is no "to" because there is no ambiguity in which is the direct and indirect object. The first object is always indirect, and the second is always direct by grammatical construction. When this is not certain, i.e. when the word order is flipped or the direct object is omitted, then "to" is necessary, such as "He reads the book to you" (where "to" is necessary to show that the indirect object is after the direct object) or, even more simply, "He reads to you" (where there is no direct object, and thus it is necessary to show that "you" is indirect.)
thanks, but still complex. I cannot put this concepts of direct and indirect object in my mind. Is very complicated.
Hi sparkle. Alluded to in the very post just above yours. In English it is either "He reads you the menu" or "He reads the menu to you" and the twain dont meet. Also, the literal translation of the French sentence is "He you reads the menu" and the most apt translation to English uses exactly the same words in a different order.
Write, this pronunciation was really fast. Barely caught it on the slow version.
"He reads you the menu" failed even though that is the correct answer. Why isn't this problem fixed?
I think it's better English if you write what i wrote. "He reads the menu to you."
First, it's "the menu" not "a menu" because it's « le » not « un ». You'd miss it on that alone. But more than that, it's pretty clunky English. You can say "He reads you the menu" or "He reads the menu to you."
You are supposed to swap the "reads" and the "you" over for it to make sense.
It aint mate. Arielleog, it's kack and you're not alone. For three years I've seen posts just like yours. Keep reporting it.
836
why is it that" he reads the menu to you" is acceptable but he reads the menu for you is unacceptable? in previous exercises the concept" ...to you" or '... "for you" in the translation was suggested
Because "tu" is only used as the subject in a sentence, the one doing whatever it is. In this case the subject of the sentence is "il" because "he" is doing the reading.
Since the reading is done "to you", you would use "te" in front of the verb, which would indicate the object/person the reading is being done to.
if it was : he reads the menu to (us, her, they) what would the sentence be?
