"Are you doing well?"
Translation:Ça va bien ?
145 Comments
What about faites-vous bien? I didn't get point :( Google translate lied to me D:
1996
Google translator is only good for literal translations so many times will not give the correct answer. I would avoid using it
"Faites-vous bien ?" is grammatically correct, but you would not say it to mean "are you doing well?" with the meaning of "are you working well?" .
It would need an object, like "Faites-vous bien vos devoirs ?" (are you doing you homework well?)
I was "close". Ça va bien ? is not quite the same as Ça va bien? (Say what?) Does the space really matter?
At my college newspaper we use to add 2 spaces after a period more for aesthetics. English speaker/American
- 1232
Me too, but using 2 spaces after a period is from the days of typewriters that had fixed width characters, so the period was centered within a pretty large gap. The two spaces helped to make the sentence breaks clearer. This is not how things were ever typeset, nor is it needed with modern computers that use variable width characters. So in this case it was a workaround for a fairly primitive printing device, rather than a printing convention, as it apparently is in French.
For “Are you doing well?” I answered with: Ça vas bien? I was told that was wrong. The reason I was given was this: You used the tu form "vas" instead of the il/elle/on form "va". Can someone explain why we use the il/elle/on form when we are trying to say “you”, not he/she/it. The correct solutions were: Ça va bien? And: Ça va bien ? (this last one just has a space between bien and the question mark). I hope someone can understand my confusion.
In the sentence "ça va bien", the subject is "ça", short version of "cela" which is 3rd person singular, like "it/that".
Ohhh! Thanks Sitesurf. Now another question: I'm not familiar with "cela" (yet). Is it similar to c'il y a?
No, "s'il y a..." means "if there is..." where the <s'> is contracted from "si" (=if).
To understand "ceci" and "celà", you may to start with the literal translation: ceci = this thing here and celà = that thing there):
- this is longer than that = ceci est plus long que celà
As in English, "ceci/this/here" is closer to you in time or space and "celà/that/there" is further in time or space.
In speech, "celà" is simplified as "ça" but "ceci" is never simplified.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but "ca va bien?" Means "Is it going well?" rather than "How are you doing?" hence the third-person form of aller (forgive the lack of a cedille, my phone can't type those, need a new keyboard)
- 1461
Literally you may be right, but colloquially ça ba bien? is ok.
By the way, on most phones, accented characters may be obtained by holding down the letter for a while and moving to the desired character. So press down on the c for a bit to get c with a cedilla etc.
Ca=it, va= go, bien=good, so does the literal translation mean "It goes well?
ça va bien = impersonal (ça = like "it", 3rd person singular)
Tu vas bien = personal, 2nd person singular
- 1996
Yes, but to me it does mean: "How are you doing? well? That is what the comma is for. I agree that "Comment ca va bien" without a comma (and with the circumflex which I can't type here...) would be incorrect.
In this case, you have to put the "?".
Comment ça va? Bien? (or: Bien j'espère? ) Yes, it's correct?
There are two words for different context.
"Bien" is an adverb (well), and "Bon"/"Bonne" is an adjective, (good). To mean how is the health of someone, use "well" (bien), because the adjerb modifies the meaning of the verb.
No "ça va" is only used for health (I'm fine), or to mean, "it's ok", like in this example:
-How is your pupil's work today?
-ça va/ ça peut aller.
-Do you think my drawing is ok? -oui, ça va!
It's not very enthusiastic here...
The confusion, is because they didn't teach "Comment ça va?" and "Comment allez-vous?" before teaching "ça va bien" and "ça va".
Let's try to start again...
The proper formal form is "Comment allez-vous?"/ "Comment vas-tu?"
Then, the informal form use the impersonal "ça" instead of the pronoun "vous" and "tu". Comment ça va? is more informal, because of that pronoun replacement.
Then, an even more informal form is "ça va?", shortened for of "Comment ça va?"
Then "ça va?" can become "ça va bien?, because you take the reply, to turn it as a question (a very informal way to ask question, even in English: it's ok?)
The correct answer was : 'Allez -vous bien' Duolingo hasn't taught me that yet, what does it mean?
No, you can't. In form of a joke, some people say "comment vas-tu bien ?" where the answer is in the question...
Comment vas-tu? Or Comment ça va? But you can't put "bien" in the question, except in "ça va bien?" (that is more a statement turned into a question, that a real proper question.
It says it could also be translated as "Vas-tu bien?" This has never been covered in the lessons. What's the diff?
The ward" are" has two ways to write Sont .. es What is the differences in use
The verb être means to be. In French this, and all other verbs, are conjugated into six different forms for each tense depending on the subject. In English verbs normally have only two conjugations for each tense, but to be has three: I am, you are and he/she/it is.
The French verb être in present tense indicative:
Je suis=I am
Tu es=You are (singular informal form of you)
Il/elle/on est=He/it/she/it/one is
Nous sommes=We are
Vous êtes=You are (singular formal and plural informal/formal form of you)
Ils/elles sont=They are
Since English and French do not conjugate the same way is this a difficult thing to grasp and to remember. A good advice is not to learn the subject and verb form apart ("Je"="I") but as a unit ("Je suis"="I am"). This way you will know when to use which "are" when.
bee-en, with "en" as a nasal sound, like in the article "un". http://fr.forvo.com/word/bien/#fr
Good question. With inflection (going up at the end) it would work perfectly well in colloquial speech (though technically it means 'it goes well.' You would be more correct and better understood, however, if you said something like 'va-tu bien?' or even 'tu va bien?' as a rhetorical question. Duolinguo can't afford to cover every single permutation of an answer though - there can be literally dozens. They're trying to teach the precise grammar. But don't feel bad - as I said, your reply would be understood. (I know that my level isn't reflected on here, but I do speak good French, having lived and worked there three years.)
Sorry, but in common usage "ça va bien?" has the same sense as "are you doing well?" and should be accepted
Why is it not acceptable to use "comment ça va bien" the same as "ça va bien"?
Ont is the third person plural form of avoir (to have) in present tense indicative. It should match ils and elles.
Va is the third person singular form of aller (to go) in present tense inficative. It should match il, elle and on.
Ça is an abbreviated form of cela which contains the la. It thus is connected to the third person singular.
"Ça va" is a correct match which means "it goes".
Vous is the second person plural and gives the verb forms avez for avoir and allez for aller in present tense indicative.
In your sentence "ont vous ça va", you have 2 verbs, so it can't be correct, you have "ont" (to have), and "va" (to go). And you have also 2 subjects, "vous" and "ça", it can be both "you" and "it" in the same sentence.
"ça va" being a very informal way to say it: there's no verb/subject inversion.
Vous allez bien, can be "Allez-vous bien?" as a question.
Interesting how when you answer some questions correctly program gives you the exact same answer you provided as an alternate answer/ sharp software or programmer!!!
It's probably because you wrote ça va bien? And with a space ça va bien ? Is a printing convention in France
No. It makes no sense in French.
You have ot use the verb "aller" (to go), because it's an idiomatic expression, you can't use "to do" (faire), because it's only mean the real action fo doing in French (except in some expressions, but not this one)
Tu vas bien ? is more limited as it is only possible to ask one person one is familiar with. And it could be interpreted as Are you walking well? Ça va bien ? is possible to ask anyone, even a group, and means How are you? or Is everything all right?.
The ward" are" has two ways to write Sont .. es What is the differences in use
The word are have in fact four different French translations, for four different persons. That is why you have to learn each verb form together with its pronoun: tu es, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont.
The verb être (=to be) in present tense indicative:
Je suis=I am
Tu es=You are (informal singular you)
Il est=He is/It is
Elle est=She is/It is
On est=One is (non-numerical one)
Nous sommes=We are
Vous êtes=You are (formal singular you or informal/formal plural you)
Ils sont=They are (Ils for all masculine or mixed gender they)
Elles sont=They are (Elles for all feminine they)
So many variations of "are you doing well?" "How are you?" "Are things good?" Etc. I am so lost and ended up using "ça va ?" Or "ça va bien ?" For everything.. :(
I living in France now and people say ''tu vas bien?'' instead of ''vas tu bien?''. Why??? :) Maybe they didn't know about duolingo...
Hi, why is "Comment vas-tu" correct and not "Comment tu-vas " like in Joe Dassin's song : "Salut, comment tu vas?" :)
I typed "tout va bien?" but it gave me error...I guess that's not the "literal" translation...
Okay, I wrote 'vas bien' - which I know for a fact is colloquially correct. Grrrrr.
I'm not French, but I've lived and worked in France, and taught English as a foreign language to French speakers - in my opinion that should be allowed. (I'm finding this site very good at brushing up my many spelling errors.)
Technically it is closer to 'how goes it' or 'how are you' than 'are you doing well.' But I have to say, I've heard your version far more often than the other.
It could be that they are trying to teach you a construction in this case, (the inverted verb pronoun as a way of asking a question) which will be useful further down the line, but just so you know - if you said this in France everyone would know you were asking after their well being. Don't be discouraged! Duolingo are very good at enforcing grammar rules without you noticing, and I think that is what has happened here.
Your translation is grammatically correct, but "faites-vous bien ?" does not inquire about somebody's health but whether or not that person is actually doing/making something the right way.
1) caps lock = shouting; 2) the expression is in proper English, but is hardly used anymore, at least where I live
to be doing well means to be healthy, to feel fine.
In French, to say the same thing, you have to use the verb "aller":
- vas-tu bien ? - est-ce que tu vas bien ? - tu vas bien ? are the 3 interrogative forms (from formal to standard to colloquial)
- allez-vous bien ? - est-ce que vous allez bien ? - vous allez bien ? are the 3 alternatives to translate "you" to the formal singular "vous" or the plural "vous".
Since 'Comment allez-vous?' is also correct, why not 'Comment allez-vous bien?'
Like "how are you doing fine?" - "how/comment" is a question that may not assume the answer.
- 1461
It shouldn't be. Unless Duo got fed up with your lack of a cedilla accent (it has never done this to me). Or else, there is a spelling mistake. If not, report it.
- 1461
One is asked with a questioning voice, with the end of the sentence going up in intonation. This is a perfectly acceptable way to ask a question in French (and English).
- 1606
Allez-vous bien is correct, it is a more formal phrase, but it means exactly the same thing : Allez-vous bien or ça va bien.
- 1606
Translation more formal "Allez-vous bien ?" Not accepted, why? It is really French.
