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- "Docteur, comment va-t-il ?"
23 Comments
No, to ask "how's it going?" you would say "comment ça va ?"
The way this sentence is structured, "il" would be understood to be someone. "How is he doing?"
Isn't 'va' the 'il' conjunction for 'aller' (to go)? Also, when you tap on the words it says "is he going" for "va-t-il". I agree with the commenter above yours. This is confusing as to why it wouldn't accept "how's it going?".
"Va-t-il" alone does mean "is he going," but you have to look at the whole phrase.
"Où va-t-il" where is he going? "Comment va-t-il" how is he doing?
This is idiomatic in French. You can't always translate word-for-word from French to English, because the two languages have different ways of saying things.
969
There is nothing wrong with "how is he going" vs "how is he doing", but probably not "how is it going". The first two are asking after the health of a third party, but the latter is more about asking after the person you are speaking to.
Why is there a t? ("Va-t-il") The sentence is about il, not toi... Can someone explain this to me?
When you have an inversion of a verb ending in a vowel and the pronouns il, elle, or on, you must add a "t" between the two words for pronunciation purposes. This is called a euphonic inversion and it is required in written form as well as spoken.
aime-t-on
a-t-elle
ira-t-il
In English, the abbreviation Dr. is a part of a title, Dr. so-and-so, and does not stand alone. The word "doctor" can be either a part of a title, Doctor Smith, or a stand alone noun.
"Doctor, how is he going " is not accepted, but in my experience that is more likely to be what is said rather than "doing"
Now, when your friend gets injured, you know how to talk to the only doctor. Who happens to be french. Everyone else is screwed.
- 1651
Well you can ask how he is but if your French is anything like mine you won't understand a word of the reply!
In the French texts, Duolingo leaves a space before question marks and exclamation marks, but not before commas or full stops/dots. Is this standard French punctuation?
That is correct. Anytime you have punctuation that is composed of 2 parts like ? ! ; : there is a space between the punctuation and the words that come before and after.
"Doctor, how is he doing?" = "Dr., How is he?". In American English 'doing' is always implied, and therefore be accepted as correct.
"Doctor, how is he?" is accepted. If you abbreviate "Dr." (UK "Dr") it should be followed by a name since it then becomes part of a title. Dr. Jane Smith, Dr. robert Jones.
- 616
In Australia we would say "how is he going" more often than the American "how is he doing"
