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- "Ce cheval est cher ?"
46 Comments
Incase anyboy is wondering why it is 'ce' and not 'ça', it is apparently because it's the subject of the verb 'être'. If it was a different verb it would have been 'ça'. Here's a link explaining the differences: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/indefinite-demonstrative-pronoun.htm
Yes, you are absolutely right here, "ce" is used here as a demonstrative adjective, not as a pronoun. There is no way that a pronoun can stand right before a noun which it is supposed to replace; it would be just like saying, for example, "il cheval est...", which would be obviously wrong (why "il", which is supposed to replace "cheval" in that case, if "cheval" is used anyway...)
If anyone is interested, here is a corresponding link for this topic: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_demonstrative.htm
78
"dear" can also mean expensive, especially in British English. "That's much too dear for me to afford."
There is some studied estimation of when we need to repeat exercises...an formula of some sort, I think. Maybe it keeps track of how often we use a word. If you practice a lot daily the selections Duo picks, fewer change colors. But if you need to work on what you know you need to work on, we have to put up with it tho over time I learned it is necessary. i slowed down on frenchto learn spanish and the french details and vocab on the little rules and words slipped out of my head...tho renewing is something we have to do most of us.
Merci. On Google Translate it is clear, and I know the difference in the sounds everywhere else, but I have been having difficulty with the recording quality of your audio. Entier sounds like "en-pee-aye"...and I find I must listen over and over again on some examples. It doesn't matter if I am on my iPad of Mac. I'm just rolling with it.
@andyjgarcia
You have written the words as you heard them - but if we look at your suggestion we can see that it can't be correct.
When listening we have to think about the sentence as a whole - it will not always be possible to know what each word in isolation is. So ask if what you think you hear makes sense.
Consider your example. If the given sentence had started with "ses" then the next word would have to be plural as "ses" is a possessive adjective used with plural nouns. That would give "ses chevaux" - but we can clearly hear that the word "cheveux" does not appear in the spoken sentence. So we know that the sentence can not begin with "ses".
Also as "cheval" is masculine we should have "cher" not "chére".
So given that "ses cheval est chère" can not possibility exist we can then work out what it should be.
672
The pronounciation of "est" sounds weird to me, the e sounds more like the e in les than the e in est.
According to how I was taught French some time ago (by a native French person), this question could be asked in two ways, and this isn't one of them. 1) Ce cheval, est-il cher? or 2) Est-ce que ce cheval est cher? --- After writing this, I just scanned down the discussion line and see others have also thought this. Glad to know these two are still correct.