"It is only a thin leaf of lettuce."
Translation:C'est seulement une fine feuille de salade verte.
114 Comments
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It looks like many people are struggling with the ne...que construction. Let me try a new tactic. This is "the keychain" method, where you think about all similar items together.
Let's look at all the possible negatives:
ne... pas is your standard "not"
ne...rien "nothing"
ne... jamais "never"
ne... personne "no one/ nobody"
ne... plus "no longer/ not anymore"
ne... pas encore "not yet"
ne...que "only" (I tell my students to think of this as "nothing but" so that they connect it with the negatives.)
Ne...que works just like all the other negative phrases. Just slap it around the first verb in the sentence. The "que" is going to elision when it smacks into another vowel.
Hope this helps.
Yep you definitely can, as a native French speaker "c'est seulement" is a little too formal for a poor lettuce ^^'
Gros merci à Benoît Van der Cam, on apprécie des gens comme vous
personally, i've been speaking french my whole life and yes, i would say that. however, this is france french and i'm canadian, so seulement is probably prefered
La laitue est une sorte salade plus ou moins verte. Lettuce veut dire salade en général de toute façon. Par contre une traduction comme Ce n'est qu'une feuille de laitue fine devrait être acceptée.
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True. I suspect someone is trying to suggest that it is only "lettuce" when you say "salade verte" but "salade" (botanically) refers to lettuce and in terms of cuisine, it is "salad".
Can you please tell me why on this page it says, "c'est", but on 'incorrect answer banner' it states that I should have used,"c'nest"? That makes no sense to me.
My answer was marked wrong. It says that I Should have said, "Ce n'est qu'une fine feuille de laitue." Can anyone lend their insight?
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To translate English "only" into French, you can use "seulement" in a positive sentence, or "ne pas que" in a negative sentence. Think of He is only = He is not but.
No, 'mince' and 'fine' is right, choose.
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'Une mince feuille de salade'
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'Une fine feuille de salade'
Both are correct.
(I'm french)
You could say "mince," but I believe it is more common to use "fine" with lettuce leaves.
One of the accepted answers was "Ce n'est qu'une fine feuille de salade verte". I never read about this kind of expression, can someone please explain?
What part is confusing? The ne + que? If so, "ne + verb + que" means "only."
For example:
Je ne suis que le messager. = I am only the messenger.
Lui ? Il n'est que copilote. = Him? He is only a copilot.
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Don't be condescending. For us new to this language "ne+verb+que" is confusing because as soon as I see "ne" I'm put in the mind of a negative statement, and, as far as I know, English speakers do not think of "only" as negative, but I do see how it can be used as a negative.
Hello Katie946173,
My answer was not intended to be condescending and I am sorry that it was perceived that way. I answer many questions and sometimes my responses are short and to the point since I am trying to get to as many as I can. I never have time to answer them all. The whole team working together can't answer them all, but we try to help as many as possible. If I don't understand the question, sometimes I'll ask for clarification, but try to answer as best I can anyway.
Sorry for the misunderstanding and bonne continuation !
I really appreciate everything the moderators and contributors do here on Duolingo. It is great to learn and sometimes it is tricky to convey something as we are not face to face. Your explanation is clear. I can only imagine the onslaught of questions as French is the second-most active language on Duolingo as we speak. :)
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Think of ne...que as "nothing but." Then, you'll have the negative link in your mind.
I've been speaking French since I lived there for 5 years in the 90's and never thought of that translation! it's genius! Since I learned from speaking in stead of classes, it's hard for me to remember the ne because lots of French people sound like they're saying C'est q'une fine feuille...so thank you so much for this way of thinking of it so I'll remember the grammar!
I don't believe the mod was trying to condescend. It's just that the asker didn't indicate which part of the sentence was confusing. My advice: Be more open-minded and don't let your dignity come between you and your education. Besides, it's unfair to pigeonhole someone for a typed comment with no face or voice to express its tone. Even more so to direct that sentiment to a mod/contributor; it's not an easy job.
Well said. The moderators are volunteers trying to help others here.
I understand ne suis to be am not, so Je ne suis que le messager is "I am not the messenger" ?? I have not seen an example of this prior to this lesson, so the ne suis que is confusing.
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bbogenrieff:
je ne suis pas = i am not
je ne sui que = i am only
If it helps, think of the latter as meaning "i am not but"
Je ne suis que le message means "I am only the messenger," not "I am not the messenger". The que comes before the restricted element. What am I only? The messenger, as opposed to, say, the actual correspondent. What is it only? A thin leaf.
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That is what I typed and it was marked wrong for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure that there were not typos.
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Show us exactly what you typed -- the entire sentence that you typed. It is easy to make a mistake and not notice it.
when I put my curser over the word lettuce it says salade?
"Lettuce" can be said "salade" or "laitue". "salade" is much more common though.
Hope I helped
The hover clue for "thin" gives" mince " and "etoit". NO mention at all of "fine."
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There are so many of us puzzling about why "une fine feuille" and not "une feuille fine." I hope we would have a response from one of the MODs soon.
For the beginning on the word bank, I only had the words Ce, and est. Can someone please fix this? 5/27/2018
Don't use "fine". It's odd, awkward and over-alliterated. "Une feuile de laitue mince" . . .
I do not agree, as a native French speaker "fine" is preferable to "mince". Une feuille de salade est fine comme une feuille de papier, pas mince ;.)
Utiliser "mince" n'est pas foncièrement faux, mais celà sonne étrange.
ne... que/qu' means only
Je ne suis qu'une fille. = I am only a girl.
Je n'ai qu'une vie. = I only have one life.
That would be fine if seulement was in one of the boxes. What do l have to do to get them to pay attention.
Why is seulement not there as a keyboard choice? If you can't choose it then you are never going to get the right answer!! I will write it out instead of using the keyboard words.
The tile choices only give you one possible correct answer. It probably included ne and qu' instead of seulement. I do think that writing it out instead of choosing tiles will help you master the language faster.
I feel like giving a hundred lingots for this moderator's comment. There is no shortcut to learning French. These sentences are set at an intermediate level where people would have hopefully encountered phrases like this in a book or movie. To try to plow through this Duolingo course without using additional outside resources is very tricky.
This particular sentence was tricky for me. I take copious notes and re-write sentences, even when I think I know them. I close my eyes and recite it from memory. That's when I know I have it.
Still catching up on my email after my vacation. ;-)
Duolingo used in conjunction with other resources can certainly help you obtain a good foundation for the language. You are right that there isn't a shortcut to learning French, but oh what a beautiful journey!
If I may say so kindly, the prompts are not really to be used, Duolingo puts them there as a courtesy. The vocabulary is best noted down and repeatedly memorized. I suggest strongly buying a thick dictionary. It would be impossible space-wise to list all the definitions. In the past, with the old fluency rating, clicking on the word to determine its meaning would have lowered people's fluency score. I think it still alters the algorithm under words still needing practice.
Why would "C'est qu'une mince feuille de laitue" not work?
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How can I complete this sentence when words are missing from the below selection? such as 'seulement and C'
There is more than one way to compose this sentence. It may have given you the tiles for "Ce n'est qu'une fine feuille de salade verte." This means the exact same thing.
If that is not the case, please take a screenshot and post it here. I can't see what tiles you were given.
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The French and the English that DL gives at the top of this page do not match each other exactly, but they are pretty close, and mean the same thing:
C'est seulement une fine feuille de salade verte.
It is only a thin leaf of green salad.
The software is garbled here. Asks for "juste" rather than seulement & doesn't recognize the "n'est que" construction which should also work here
Hmm. Could you please get a screenshot and post it here? It is hard to tell where the problem lies.
To post a screenshot here, you'll have to upload it to a hosting site like Imgur. Then right click on the picture and click "Copy image address" (or the equivalent in your browser). Then, here, type , replacing "Pasted image address" with what you just copied. Make sure not to leave any spaces.
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If there seems to be words missing try NOT completing the sentence, then press continue and you will get two suggestions not just one.
Unfortunately, the words "c'est seulement" were not offered in the menu of possible answers.
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What choices were you given? There are other correct answers in French besides the one DL gives here using "seulement".
For example, there is "Ce n'est pas qu'une ...".
I didn't have 'seulement' as one of the options I could put into the sentence. I was given these words or parts of words: Ce, sauvage, n', est, interessant, qu', efficace, une, feuille, de, verte salade, fin, secret.
Reported.
With those words you could have made the sentence: Ce n'est qu'une fine feuille de salade verte. This is also correct.
The tap exercises may include several different translations that mean the same thing. If you do not wish to use the word tiles, please change your settings to keyboard so that you can type your preferred translation.
The words provided were not correct , and only a negative response could be given
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Remember that ne... que can be translated as "only" in English. I tell my students to think of ne...que as "nothing but" if they need that "negative" connection.
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Debbie, it doesn't need to be there. There are other ways of saying "only", and you should have chosen one of them. See the other comments on this page for more information.
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My attempt to get this correct was made impossible with NO seulement and NO C' in the word to choose from.
The word seulement is missing from the excercise, it is not possible to complete correctly.
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"seulement" is not the only word that can be used in French to mean "only". See the discussion on this page!
will someone at Duo please tell me why they include in the answer, a word which is not in the drop down menu?
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The available words for the solution do not include seulement so a correct answer is not available
I don't understand how this can be the recommended translation when 'seulement' was not available as a word choice.
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The word 'seulement' is not provided in the blocks. Nor are the other words that the clue says are for 'only'.
Could you please provide a screenshot so I can see what words were provided and either help solve the mystery or file a bug report with staff?
To post a screenshot here, you'll have to upload it to a hosting site like Imgur. Then right click on the picture and click "Copy image address" (or the equivalent in your browser). Then, here, type , replacing "Pasted image address" with what you just copied. Make sure not to leave any spaces.
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I might humbly suggest that instead of filing a bug report, you have the official translation changed to "Ce n'est qu'une..." or added somehow as a second translation. I suggest this only because I think the ne...que construction is important to learn, and there are obviously not a lot of people reading the comments, and instead only posting their frustration at not finding the words that they expected to find. Changing the "official" translation up top might solve the entire problem.
I can't change the official translation to ce n'est qu'une... because the original source sentence is c'est seulement une... However, I can remove ce n'est qu'une... as an alternative "best" answer. Now it is just another alternative possibility among 22 in all. Hopefully this will reduce the confusion. Clearly this course needs more ce n'est que/qu' type sentences to give users more exposure to this construct.
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I don't think that will work, unfortunately. I think the problem is that people are getting the "put the tiles in the proper order" exercise, and they don't know the ne... que sentence construction. Then when they get it wrong, and they see the answer with seulement, they think the exercise is wrong (unfortunately).
Perhaps you can move a comment to the top with a mini grammar lesson, and a caution to read the discussion entirely before commenting? Are you able to move things to the top? Just a thought.
I don't have the ability to move comments or even sticky one at the top. That would be great though! Exercises are only supposed to be drawn from the "best" translations now, a recent change, so I can only hope that the ne...qu' stops appearing in tile exercises for this sentence because I have disabled it as one of the "best".
What Gives? I have done this exercise 10 times and there is no selection for c'est nor for seulement on my computer. Therefore I cannot complete the exercise.
salut douolingo, je suis allée à une école françase depuis la maternelle, et je suis certaine que j'ai raison. Tu peux dires salade ou lettue. Le mot salade est mieux, mais lettue devrait être accepté.
Merci
This was the answer given "C'est seulement une fine feuille de salade verte." Please NOT VERY WELL that in the word blocks to be chosen, the following were NOT INCLUDED "seulement", Ce given instead of "C'", This was really MISLEADING
There is more than one way to compose this sentence. It may have given you the tiles for "Ce n'est qu'une fine feuille de salade verte."
If that is not the case, please take a screenshot and post it here. I can't see what tiles you were given.
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Judith, see the comment just above yours in this thread. Are you sure you're reading the comments before posting?
Isn't the translation of "lettuce" laitue? In any case, the word "verte" is missing from the correction online. please correct. Thanks!
Me too, same as Romanophile. The chaussettes were tres fines, but now we have the fine feuille. ??
SOS!!! NOTE very well that the same problem is still being encountered in answering this question. You gave Ce , est and there was no (C') hence couldn't combine (Ce and est). The word (seulement) was also missing again. there's no way one can answer this question CORRECTLY. Please act and do the necessary CORRECTIONS.
