27 Comments
The real song in French is actually: Chaton tout doux, minou tout chaud, petite boule de poils. Spoiler alert: the doubling is HORRIBLE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MJARORGyk
You just wouldn't say this, would you. You really wouldn't. There's a reason they never taught us that form at school...
When talking about female cats there really is no problem using chatte/chattes.
The French language has two words for cat, the masculine chat for cat in general or for a male cat and the feminine chatte for a female cat. They are both used. They are both normal. They are both taught in school.
No, dirty mind of Duo's - someone thought it funny to put a string of equivalent sentences (different slang, same meaning) in the Italian lessons.
this is rough. Douce/doux has several meanings that can be applied to a cat--gentle, mild, sweet, soft. The first 3 apply to behavior, the last to a physical feature.
1718
And the answer is, it depends on what you want to say within the context. Doux/douce has a number of possibilities:
- regarding a touch: soft, smooth
- regarding taste: sweet, mild
- regarding soap: mild
- regarding a person: gentle
- regarding acceleration: smooth
- regarding temperament: gentle
- regarding weather: mild/gentle
How can someone really tell when to use doux /douce.... I keeping lossing hearts for this cause...
- 1718
Doux is an adjective and has a masculine and feminine form. Doux is used to modify masculine nouns; douce is used to modify feminine nouns. http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english/doux/26530 Most French adjectives work this way but there are some which are invariable, i.e., a single form is used for both masculine and feminine nouns, e.g., Il est faible / Elle est faible. Le garçon est drôle / La fille est drôle.
If the horse is nice, how am I suppose to know the meaning in this one will be soft? either way both should be accepted, saying the other possibility is available.
- 648
Oui, même s'ils n'ont pas exactement le même sens. Douce veut aussi dire "soft".
La chatte est douce : elle est affectueuse (the cat is gentle/sweet), elle est douce au toucher (the cat is soft - its fur is soft)
La chatte est gentille : elle ne va pas mordre ou griffer (the cat is nice/gentle)
Cette personne est douce : elle est très gentile, voire sensuelle (this person is sweet)
Cette personne est gentille : elle fait de bonnes actions et aide son prochain (this person is nice/gentle).
Thank you jytou! That helps enormously. Therefore a gentille personne = a genteel person; A douce personne = a nice/sweet person; A gentille chat = a cat that doesn't scratch bite / wellmannered?; And a douce chat = a loving/affectionate cat
- 648
I've edited my answer to add the English translations. Note that « un chat » is masculine, thus takes « doux », « gentil », but « une chatte » is feminine and takes « douce », « gentille ».
