63 Comments
How to say thank you for so much clarity without such a nice way to think about it? Trés geneal. I wonder why "des" is needed unless to indicate that the mother does not cut all fruit into pieces? One can smell "le chocolate" because it is specific chocolate on the stove. But it would be wrong to say "les fruits" for general unless it referred to just the fruit in the refrigerator or for a specific salad?
The French sentence was originally written with "des fruits" (the plural of "un fruit").
We could have written "les fruits", to make it either a generality for "fruit as a food category" or a specific reference to "the fruit in question".
In any event, both "des fruits" and "les fruits" would be translated to "fruit", with no substantial difference in meaning.
As far as I know the "t" in "fruits" should be silent ("frwee") and the one in "frites" pronounced ("freet").
I put My Mother Loves To Cut Fruit. That is Ma mère aime couper des fruit. How am I wrong?
Aimer only means to love in reference to people, not things, ideas or activities. In those cases it means to like. Please read the comments as this has been discussed already dozens of times.
Heroes. Just like the kind fathers. If they treat mothers right, things go amazingly well even with serious disasters now and then. I pay attention to that. But some Mom's handle it all and their sons get it right and become happy good fathers and spouses. And work. Wish so many did not have to. Glad they can.
Can couper mean to chop? Or put another way, how do you say "My mother likes to cut up fruit."?
I was wondering that too. Here in Australia (would be the same for U.K., though not sure about the U.S. & Canada) barely anyone would say they'd 'cut', or cut up food produce. They would definitely say 'chop', or chop up. I'm sure that couper could also translate to chop, though it is a little bit strange hearing one 'cut' up fruit...
According to my dictionary, to chop food is "hachet." And to cut up food is indeed couper.
I don't personally use chop as a generic word (US/New Zealand). Maybe cut up. I just cut up a banana and the word I would use there is slice. To chop up food usually means cutting it in small pieces, which you don't actually do that often with fruit.
Ibtissame: The verb 'like' can be used with either the -ing form (my mother likes cutting) or the infinitive (my mother likes to cut). However, 'enjoy' can only be used with the -ing form (my mother enjoys cutting). So your answer (*my mother enjoys to cut) is not correct English.
All this nitpicking from DL's side makes it an english course and not a french course for all us non-english-natives who want to learn french...:/
If you know what the correnct English form is, then it will help you in French (and if you ever decide to learn English completely) !
My point is: if I (or anyone else) should learn english completely, inclusive such details like the one above, I would never arrive at french or other languages, because learning it to absolute perfection would take all my life.
Yes, I see your point. However, as you are learning French from English, you have to know what the correct form is that the French translates from. Knowledge is power!
Perhaps it would make more sense for you to learn French directly from your own language rather than through the intermediary of a third language? I would find that hopelessly confusing.
Well you seem to be making the most of duo!!! Inspired by all the many languages people are working on, I started Spanish and it's joyous. What should I tackle next? Is Norwegian difficult?
178
I know several people whose English is on that level. If it's quite sufficient for professionals in the English-speaking world, then it ought to be enough for Duo.
Can somebody please help me. What would be the difference in meaning between "Ma mère aime couper des fruits" and "Ma mère aime couper les fruits"?
None, for a change! A least without context.
"les fruits" could need to be specific to her orchard (un verger) or her favorite tree... we don't know.
Have you had a chance to read the "Tips & Notes" section of the Basic 2 Skill?
This it what it reads:
Love is tricky in France. For people and pets, aimer means "to love", but if you add an adverb, like in aimer bien, it means "to like". For everything else, aimer only means "to like". Adorer can always mean "to love", though it tends to be more coy than aimer.
Why is it sometimes à couper and other times just couper to mean to cut
Infinitive "couper" can be used in various constructions, depending on the active verb:
- je veux couper des fruits: "vouloir" does not need a proposition
- je suis prêt à couper des fruits: prêt à = ready to
- je finis de couper des fruits: finir de = finish +V-ing
- je prends un couteau pour couper des fruits = in order to
i said my mummy likes to cut some fruit and it said mummy was right but it accepted mummy in another sentence
No, because she is actually cutting the fruit, not "making them cut."
In English, some verbs can refer to either the subject or the object, depending on the wording. One can say the water is boiling (in French, l'eau bouille) or one can say I'm going to boil the water (je vais faire bouillir l'eau). The same goes for verbs like melt (fondre) and break (casser, se casser).
One cannot, however, say the fruit cuts (although one could say the fruit cuts easily), so cut is not one of those verbs, and neither is couper.
- 144
when translating to french, why is it "des fruits" and not "du fruit"? elsewhere in this lesson when you like to "faire griller du poulet", "poulet" was singular.
Singular and plural do not always correspond from one language to another. In French, more than one piece of fruit is "fruits," but in English it remains "fruit." "A bowl of fruit." If you want to use a plural, you would have to say something like "several pieces of fruit," but it is "piece" that is being pluralized.
To confuse matters further, "de" is in this case the partitive article used for a quantity, so "du poulet" is not really singular, it is an unknown quantity - like saying "some chicken" (or just chicken in general) in English. And "des fruits" is also an unknown quantity, but unlike chicken the plural is used. It's just a quirk of the language.
But using the plural for fruit must be very common in other languages, because one often hears non-native English speakers refer to "fruits," which sounds odd in English (except in set phrases such as "fruits and vegetables.")
the fruit=les fruits (some) fruit=des fruits
In Anglo-English, fruit is a collective noun most of the time (except in special cases such as "fruits and vegetables," "the fruits of your labour" etc). English speakers from other countries (such as Africans or Indians) often pluralize it, however.
Duo primarily uses American English, so "des fruits" would be just "fruit."
- 1022
I had the audio. I wrote "Ma mère aime coupé des fruits." Would it sound the same and if so, could it also be correct?
Yes, it would sound the same, but no, it would not be correct because it would be a nonsensical mixing of tenses. That is the past participle of couper and could not be used after aime, which is the present third person conjugation. If you want to use past tense, it is the first verb (aimer) that would be in the past tense (just as in English, you would say "My mother liked to cut fruit," not "My mother likes to have cut fruit.") I'm sorry, I have no accents so I can't write it for you.
- 1022
Merci! I think I got caught up in sounds and forgot meaning! Seems so clear now after reading your comment.
- 54
Why is 'my mother likes to cut up fruit' wrong? I can't think that I would ever say 'cut fruit' rather than 'cut up'.
In lots of phrazes i find "some" where there are plurals. This is simply ridiculous!! It's sounds in any case unnatural, anywhere you give this as a translation. Nowhere in UK or USA is this used.
"Some" is not necessary to translate "des", you are right, and preferred translations (like this one at the top of the page) does not have "some".
But adding "some" is not always wrong, and this is why we consider this option when it is relevant.
"Ma mére aime couper des fruits." And seemingly her fingers, on occasion.
Since there is written "des fruits" shouldn't it be "to cut fruits" as well? Or did I miss smth.
Standard English does not say "to cut fruits" because fruit is already a collective noun. We only use the plural form "fruits" in certain contexts, like "fruits and vegetables" or "the fruits of one's labour" or perhaps "one should eat a variety of fruits." It's used when stressing that there are many discreet types of different fruit.
Certain regional varieties of English, such as that spoken in India, commonly pluralize words like fruit, but not standard US/UK English. So it's not in Duolingo's database or correct answers.
fruit and frites sound exactly the same on the bot voice. Do the French not sound the u in fruit at all?
Yes, though it is subtle. But the difference should be very obvious because the t in frites is sounded, whereas the t in fruits is silent.
I wanted to say "cut up fruit" instead of "cut fruit", but was afraid DL would not accept it.
