"C'est comme avec le chien de mon cousin."

Translation: It is like with my cousin's dog.

[Muzorewi1984]

I knew the literal translation of this sentence would be "it is like with my cousin's dog" but it seemed like such a bizarre sentence I assumed the French must be some idiom and typed something random in and lost a heart. I'm all for learning fun, even slightly silly, sentences but when the sentence reads in such a downright unnatural way in English, I'm sorry, but it is not useful.

[Persikov]

It's not a fragment (there's a subject and a verb) but it requires great imagination to find a context. I agree, poor choice.

(the previous comment was edited, that's why mine doesn't make sense now)

[montreal1976]

I dunno, people say this kind of thing all the time, "it's like with my cousin's dog - he barks all night long". but yeah it's pretty colloquial when you're expecting something 'proper'.

[northernguy]

I got it right but I came to the comments to find out why, since it seemed improbable. I'm surprised to see what seems to be a specific language artifact show as directly translatable in another language.

[shriramk]

Me too! I am always surprised by these literally translated artifacts, which suggests not coincidence but borrowing.

[Shan007]

With that additional context it makes it more understandable, otherwise as a fragment it requires some imagination, of which I have very little right now!!!

[nktrs]

I don't understand the English translation...how does that make any sense? This sentence seems like a subordinate clause aka fragment

[aurelienche]

It's random but still meaningful. If you prefer: “It is the same thing with...”, or “The same thing happens with...”.

[ace980]

This is a poorly constructed English fragment. It wouldn't make sense unless you understood the prior context in the conversation. As a native speaker, this statement confused me. If someone said this to me, I'd assume the context was highly informal/colloquial or slang/improper English. Definitely not something you'd hear in a professional setting.

[northernguy]

It's definitely not something you are likely to hear in a professional setting but you hear it everywhere else in spoken English.

[Chartreux]

If I had a teenage daughter I suppose this is how she would construct a sentence right before I send her off to summer school!

[drplasma64]

what's wrong with "That's how it is with my cousin's dog" which actually makes sense in English.

[Flanny-chan]

"That's how it is" contains two verbs, whereas this sentence only contains one, which makes your translation impossible. Which is too bad, really, because indeed, that sentence actually makes sense.

[Persikov]

Now you've entered the waters of making a "good" translation. Yours is lots better, but these exercises want you to be as literal as possible. Still, it's a very poor choice for an exercise.

[prky]

So is the French sentence borrowing from English, or the English translation borrowing from French? The use of "like" is common in American English, but is this also common in French?

[Chartreux]

I'm glad this was on the multiple choice. I just don't understand what duolingo is trying to teach with a sentence constructed in this format.

[prky]

Couldn't one also say, "C'est comme le chien de mon cousin ?"

[Persikov]

I don't speak French but that sounds better as the "with" in the English sentence doesn't actually mean "accompanied by".

[_Klaus]

As it is, it makes no sense.

[mtubino]

What is that supposed to mean in English?