"The square"
Translation:La place
23 Comments
Can someone explain to me why "Le jardin public," aka the public garden, is a REQUIRED translation for "the square" ?? These are not the same thing...
I don't know want you really mean by “public garden”, but I can tell you that in french we even say « square » (pronounced with a french accent) instead of « jardin public ». So for us it is clearly the same.
A carré is a square (the shape). A jardin public is a square (the place, like a public square).
I was previously thinking that the square referred to a public square in the center of town. I do not see how this relates to a public garden. Idiomatic? or just a different way of looking at things. We don't tend to have call parts of downtown public squares in the United States at least in the way I think of cities in Europe having them. City Center in Munich, or inside the Ringstrasse in Vienna, etc. Areas where there is a plaza (generally with a cathedral). I don't associate that with a garden though so maybe I am completely off track.
so now the square = le carre, before it was "la place', and before that it was 'le jardin public', so which one is it? Man, as you go down the Duo tree it gets more and more sloppy in terms of quality of the lessons.
Reading the comments, it seems that "square" can be any or all of these.
I think it's fair enough to highlight multiple translations, I think it's a bit harsh to call it sloppy... I know it's a pain to lose a heart (I did), but it helps you remember.
un carré = a geometrical square, the second power, or a patch
une place = a plaza or square as in a public square; un square seems to be a synonym
un jardin public = a public garden, which may or may not be une place
une case = a square on a grid
Honestly, words like these are a lot easier to learn with a proper context.
In France, they call their public gardens 'a square', as in the Square of Foust, or the Square of Matilde, etc.
Yeah, the further you go, the more you realize Duo teaches primarily through confusion and frustration.
It would probably repeatedly slap you in the face like JK Simmons if we had the technology. :)
Well, actually no. That means for you it is clearly NOT the same. You do not say « jardin public » when you mean square, as you just indicated, and that is what Duolingo is telling me is the correct translation.
No no, I meant we say either « square » (french pronunciation) or « jardin public ». So I agree that both translation should be accepted for “square” (the english word).
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I think it does, but "Jardin public" can also mean "square". Though how you would differentiate between a public square and a public garden, I don't know. :P
"Jardin" means a garden in English. "Un jardin public" means a "park". Keep in mind that in certain parts of the world, the word park is synonymous with square. So, if we were in Egypt for example, I would be telling you about the Square of el-Tahrir', while in fact I mean "the park of el-Tahrir." That's British English.
From all the comments it seems to me that there are different approaches to what constitutes a "square" in France, in the US, in Britain c. I just want to ask any Francophone: would you call this https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C4%8Cesk%C3%A9_Bud%C4%9Bjovice_Square.jpg "un jardin public", given the conspicuos lack of plants, or could this ONLY be called "une place/un square"?
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Reverso gets 3992 hits on 'le jardin public' but NONE of them translate simply to 'the square'. Of the 3992 hits, only 4 use 'square' -- 2 as 'town square' 2 as 'garden square' . This does not seem like any justification 'The square' as an acceptable English translation...
I live in Quebec and I have seen "square", "carré", and "place" all used to refer to public squares. I have never seen the phrase "jardin public" at all, but I assume if it was used here it would refer to a literal garden.
Fun fact: There is a writer of spy stories whose pen name is John le Carré: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carr%C3%A9
I don't see how you get this translation. Isn't jardin the word for garden
