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- Topic: French >
- "Elle sait parler français."
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"She knows to speak French" is wrong; how would I say "she knows to speak French (around him because...)"?
"She knows how to speak French" was accepted. "Elle sait parler francais autour de lui parce que...is the translation, I believe.
In English you would say "She knows that she should speak French around him because . . . " I'll leave it to a native speaker to give you the French translation.
255
I'm not actually a native speaker (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), but that would be
"elle sait qu'elle doive parle en francais autour de lui".
This is a difficult sentence since it requires the present subjunctive of devoir (an irregular verb), a mood which is not often used in English. There will be lessons on this at the end of the French tree.
I came here to ask that too- the word 'comment' (how) wasn't there so I wrote it literally and it makes sense in context! PLease help explain why!
In French, you should use "pouvoir" when you are allowed or have the physical capacity "Elle peut parler français" woud be understood as "she was authorized to". If it's something you've learnt, you should use "savoir" : "elle sait parler français, elle sait nager" etc
My question is why in the French sentence there is no article" Elle sait parler le francais" ?
Both sentences are valid. You don't have to use an article with "parler " + language.
- 923
???
She can speak french would be: Elle peut parler francais...
She knows to speak french does make sense... someone telling someone else that she knows to speak french in whatever environment they are in...
Where does the "how" show up in this sentence?
I wrote: she knows to speak french, which translates literally and makes sense to me, but it was marked incorrect....
- 255
You need to translate this somewhat idiomatically. So as you say, "she knows to speak ..." is bad English, rather we have to include "how" to get "she knows how to speak ...".
I suppose you could think of "savoir = to know/ to know how (to do smth)" depending on context.
- 923
This makes sense to me... thank you...
I'm wondering... if "she" was in France at someone's house who did not speak English and say, her husbands mother asked him, "Does she know to speak French here?" and he answered, "Yes, she knows to speak French."... would that be written differently?
For the dictation audio, would this be homophonous with "Elle s'est parlé francais" as in "she talked to herself"?
Mais pourqois est-ce que cette phrase n'est pas, <<Elle sait comment parler Francais?..
- 255
Because it simply isn't. This is the way the sentence "she knows how to speak French" is written in French.
You version, <<Elle sait comment parler Francais>> seems wrong to me, it feels unnatural, but not being a native speaker, I cannot say for certain that it would not be acceptable.
The difference between english and french is that english is a syntetic language, so, except a special and more complicate context the sentence should be also accepted as "she knows/speaks english". The accepted mot a mot translation is not real english
