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- "Your jeans are long."
"Your jeans are long."
Translation:Ton jean est long.
54 Comments
1305
Why are these "jeans" questions always so difficult?? For me, this was multiple choice. I chose "Votre jean est longue" which was correct, but I missed another correct answer, "Ton jean est long." Why is it "longue" for one but "long" for the other? The noun "jean" was the same.
1305
Thanks. I should have known it is masculine, so the one I chose should have been incorrect. It does have to be a mistake, but I guess it's too late to report it. Maybe someone else will catch it. Thanks for all the help you give everyone!
2311
FR "grand" can also mean "long", e.g., a long walk, long arms, a long stride, a long trip, etc. It's usual sense of "big" is "tall". Other words that communicate different aspects of "big" are: large referring to width (big/wide) and gros referring to thickness (big/fat).
When we have one pair of jeans, we use "un jean"
When we have several pairs of jeans, we use " deux ou trois jeans, des jeans, plusieurs jeans, etc".
When the English is just "your jeans" we don't know if this is one pair or several.
Therefore, the French translation can be "ton jean" or "tes jeans".
46
How is it possible for more than one person (plural) to share the exact same jean? It is possible, scientifically speaking of course, but you do not meet people who share their jeans everyday. I think that, beside 'ton jean est long', the other answer should be 'vos jeans sont longs' rather than 'votre jean est long', which is a bit awkward, and both answers will remain correct since 'your jeans are long' expresses both the singular and the plural.
When you read "your jeans are long" you cannot know:
- if the speaker is addressing one or two or more individuals
- if the speaker is talking about one pair of jeans or two or more
In addition, "you" can be translated to "tu" (singular), "vous" (singular) or "vous" (plural).
Therefore, there are 4 possible translations:
- ton jean est long / tes jeans sont longs
- votre jean est long / vos jeans sont longs
46
In English, it is true that jeans can express both the singular and the plural; but the word's equivalent in French should be either 'jean', in case of singular, or 'jeans' in case of plural. In other words, You might not know if 'your jeans are long' is addressing one pair of jeans or multiple jeans; but the French version(s) of the sentence can tell. You mentioned four possible translations of the English sentence; yet Duolingo chose, on one hand, the most awkward one which is 'votre jean est long' and, on the other hand, 'ton jean est long' which is very logical. It is true that 'votre jean est long' is grammatically correct; but since there are two other free options, I would like to pick up another one which is more reasonable.
I hope that you understand my point of view.
"votre jean est long" is not awkward at all, since it is the way you will address someone you don't know well or whom you owe respect to (like a salesman talking to a customer in a shop).
remember that "you" has 3 translations: "tu" for family and friends, "vous" singular polite/respectful and "vous" plural for 2 or more people.
on top of it, if you say "votre jean est long" to 2 people, the meaning of "each one his own" will be immediately understood.
"vos jeans sont long" can tell the same thing to the same 2 people, or to one person whose pairS of jeans are all long.
46
It's all clear now, thanks to you! I forgot that, in French, 'votre' can also address a singular.
2311
Most French adjectives are placed after the noun they modify, however adjective of Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness/badness and Size are placed before the noun. This is called the BANGS rule. As to "la robe courte", that is curious. I have seen that adjective both before and after the noun.
your jeans are long can mean either "your pair of jeans is long" or "your several pairs of jeans are long"
In French, "jean" is the singular (one pair) and "jeans" is plural (2 or more pairs).
Since the English sentence is vague when it comes to the number of pairs of jeans, there are 2 possible translations in French:
- ton jean est long
- tes jeans sont longs
2311
It's a bit more complicated than that. FR "grand" will be translated (in appropriate context) as big, tall, large, long, wide, great, or even heavy. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/french-english/grand
Be aware that there are other French words that carry the sense of "big" in different connotations, i.e., specifically referring to width (FR "large"), thickness (FR "gros"), and length (FR "long").
When you get "your jeans are long" you don't know if it is one pair or several pairs of jeans.
In French, it is different: "un jea"n is "one pair of jeans" and "des jeans" are "more than one pair of jeans".
so, when you translate from English to French, here are the possibilities:
- ton jean est long = familiar "tu" + 1 pair of jeans
- tes jeans sont longs = familiar "tu" + several pairs of jeans
- votre jean est long = formal or plural "vous" + 1 pair of jeans
- vos jeans sont longs = formal or plural "vous" + several pairs of jeans.
188
Scratches head Thank you, but I am still confused by the grammar on this one. I guess it will click eventually :-)
"jeans", in English, is always plural.
"un jean, des jeans" is countable in French and the singular translates to "a/one pair of jeans".
therefore, when the English sentense is "your jeans are long", you don't know if it is about one pair or several pairs.
as a consequence, there are 2 possible translations in French:
- ton/votre jean est long = singular "one pair"
- tes/vos jeans sont longs = plural "several pairs".
Reminder: possessive adjectives agree with the possession, not the owner:
- ton jean, ta veste, tes vĂȘtements (familiar address "tu")
- votre jean, votre veste, vos vĂȘtements (formal singular or plural address "vous")
274
If long can be translated both long and grand then why in tge excersise where i shoukd tipe the whole sentanse and i tiped ton jean est grand i was marked wrong??
"Your jeans are long" does not tell how many pairs of jeans there are.
In French, you would know because "un jean/des jeans" is a regular noun.
Therefore, "your jeans are long" can translate to a singular or plural sentence:
- Ton jean est long
- Tes jeans sont longs
If you use "vous" instead of "tu":
- Votre jean est long
- Vos jeans sont longs
I saw you ask in some other thread to a screenshot of a bug; I have two here - https://imgur.com/a/PIMbtnu.
Hoping they get fixed.
Thanks for the screenshots, very helpful.
The first one does not need a fix:
- "What is that?" translates to "qu'est-ce ?" (no other tile was needed)
The second one has the numeral "1" in the suggested correction (which is a known bug), but your translation was wrong anyway:
- "C'est un Japonais" translates to "It/This is a Japanese one" or "He is a Japanese man/boy/person".