"Your jeans are long."
Translation:Votre jean est long.
54 Comments
754
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.
There must be a mistake somewhere, because "un jean" is masculine, so it has to be "long" (not longue)
"Ton jean est long" is correct, as well as "tes jeans sont longs", "votre jean est long" and "vos jeans sont longs".
- 754
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!
For me, the prompt was "Your jeans are long," with "Vos jeans sont longs" and "Vos jeans sont grands" the two correct answers according to Duolingo. Are long/grand identical in meaning here? How would you say that the jeans are too big (e.g., in the waist)..."vos jeans sont gros?"
- 1749
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).
is the reason the answer is "jean" instead of "jeans" even though the english is plural the same as "pantalon" meaning "pants"?
In English, jeans, pants are plural (= a pair of...).
In French, un jean, un pantalon are singular.
If it is correct to use the singular for Jean, where does the accepted text , Tes jeans sont grands come from?
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".
The right answer of course but that's still a bit too tricksy for me in practice sitesurf. Missed it again even though have seen the question before. It hangs on a pecularity of English rather than a peculiarity of French, which is a bit harsh. :( Ah well!
long [LON] = masculine singular
longue [LONG] = feminine singular
longs [LON] = masculine plural
longues [LONG] = feminine plural
- 210
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
- 210
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.
- 210
It's all clear now, thanks to you! I forgot that, in French, 'votre' can also address a singular.
Why sometimes adjectives are before and sometimes are after like:la longue robe,la robe courte.?
- 1749
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.
I dont understand how votre or ton couldnt both be acceptable if they mean the same thing?
"votre" and "ton" are both accepted by the system. But maybe there was another mistake in your translation:
- ton/votre jean est long
Shouldn't it be 'ton jeans', not 'tes jeans' since you'd say this about a particular pair of jeans?
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
Why is grand and long considered the same ?! And... jeans were considered plural ??!!
- 1749
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.
"votre jean" is a singular subject, so the verb has to be singular and 3rd person: votre jean est long.
If you have several pairs of jeans: "vos jeans sont longs"
- 10
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 vêtements (familiar address "tu")
- votre jean, votre veste, vos vêtements (formal singular or plural address "vous")
Before this one, I had to translate 'my dress is long.' I wrote 'ma robe est grande' but I was marked incorrect. Here, it is saying 'longe' and 'grande' are interchangeable. Why is that?
I wrote/picked 'vos jeans sont long' why is that wrong? Grand wouldnt be used to mean long in that context surely?
I wrote Ton jean sont long and it is saying i am wrong. I used sont for are. It is telling me Ton jean est long.
"ton jean" is singular and "sont" is the conjugation for 3rd person plural.
Therefore, "your jeans are long" can translate to:
- ton jean est long
- tes jeans sont longs
I had typed "votre jeans sont long" and it replaced "sont" with "est", is there a reason for this. Because I thought that "sont" meant are and that "est" meant is.
Since the English "jeans" can be singular (one pair) or plural, you can translate this sentence in singular - all words in singular - or in plural - all words in plural:
- votre jean est long
- vos jeans sont longs
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??
The problem here is with the word jeans. I wrote: "ton pair of jeans is long" and was marked wrong. If jeans is plural then I believe it should say ton jeans sont longs Clarification Please.
"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".
