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- Topic: French >
- "La chatte est douce."
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.
2271
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...
- 2271
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.
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
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 ».
