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- "A woman eats a sandwich and …
"A woman eats a sandwich and an orange."
Translation:Une femme mange un sandwich et une orange.
48 Comments
How am I able to tell which foods should be masculine and which should be feminine?
Very simple reply: you can't.
If you meet the word for the first time, you have to pay attention to memorize it with its article. Ex: la-lune as a whole, instead of only "lune" (=moon)
There's no trustable rule to determine the gender in French (with some very tiny trustable rule, like the word ending with -tion for instance), the best of all is to simply memorize them, it's not harder to memorize a word with its article than to memorize it alone.
There's no more "masculine" food than "feminine" food, it's probably 50/50.
you look at the end of the word if it ends in a E its feminine if it end in any other letter its masculine.
It's one of those things you just have to know, but generally if something ends with an 'e' as in "une orange," it's feminine.
Command form he/she/it - mange You form (singular) - manges You form (plural) - mangez They - mangent We are - mangeons
Hope that helps.
There are mistakes DustyBooks.
If you mean "command form" = imperative.
Eat: (imperative) can't be for he/she/it.
Normal form = Il/Elle mange, you're right.
Eat: (imperative) for informal "you" (= tu) = Mange! (without "s" at the imperative)
Normal form = tu manges (with "s"), you're right.
Eat: (imperative) for "we" (=nous) = Mangeons!
and the normal form is "Nous mangeons) (No "we are" here, you're wrong)
Eat: (imperative) can't be for they.
Normal form = Ils mangent or Elles mangent.
Eat (imperative) for the formal "you" (= vous) or the plural "you" (both formal and informal) = Mangez!
Normal form: Vous mangez.
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I knew that an orange was in fact feminine but is it incorrect to place two vowels together such as, une orange?
It's correct to place "une" and "orange" together, because you don't pronounce the "e" at the end of "une." Think more in terms of vowel sounds than written vowels, that's why "le homme" contracts to "l'homme" despite "homme" starting with a written consonant--it's a vowel sound.
Right. The contractive for is only for "la" that becomes "l' " (or same thing for "le"), not with indefinite article.
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Yup it is correct. You write it like that, but you'd say it "Un'orange" without saying the "e"
Yes.
Indeed, the "e" is pronounced, but the French way. It means that without the "e", you would have the nasal "un" (The "e" is here to makes the "n" sounds like a "n" and not like a nasal "un")
In French, the sound of "e" like in "une orange", is often linked with the other wovel. But some people (some accents in some places) would pronounce the "e" more or less in some word (not here obviously)
Stop the clutter! Please do not report mistakes here and read the comments below before posting.
Nouns are either femenine or masculine but this is random. Same in spanish. Why is the table a she but the floor a he? Its the way it is. You have to learn their gender by heart am afraid!
Yes, it looks random. It can be explaned though etymology or history, but it doesn't really matter here. It looks more random than in Spanish for example. In Spanish, you can guess easily with some exception to memorize, in French, you really have to memorize the gender. (It's not so hard, if you have the good learning method)
what is the difference between une/un and le/la, un sandwich but une orange ? La lettre but le livre ?
Une for female Un for male La means( the). followed by (female ) Le means ( the) followed by ( male) But the problem is that I sometimes can't know where to decide if the word was referring to a female ir a male specialy that the words are things and not people.
You're right, but there's no "male" or "female" things, only consider them as grammatical cases. You have to memorize the gender, you can't guess it.
ugh im furustrated...what is tha difference between manges & mange..can anyone plz help me :(
You would use mange for first person and third person singular. Like Je mange and il/elle mange. Manges is second person singular. Tu manges. Since it is a verb, you conjugate it depending on subject.
Je- mange Nous-mangeons Tu- manges Vous- mangez Il/elle-mange Ils/Elles-mangent.
I keep getting the mange, manges, mangeon etc options mixed up. How do you know which to use?
It's about grammer ;) Je : Verb + nothing tu : Verb + s Il et elle : verb + nothing Nous : verb + ons vous : verb + ez ils et elles : verb + ent
and all pronounce same as the original verb exept Verb + ez (like in mangez) and Verb + ons (like in mangeons)
regards
Why on the iPad does it try to make me use "en train de" in this sentence?
"en train de" is optional (and not recommended), it's the way in French to replace the present continuous.
Je mange des céréales = Je suis en train de manger des céréales = I'm eating cereals.
Le lundi, je mange des céréales = On monday, I eat cereals = you can't use "en train de" here.
Yes, it would be really helpful if the mouseover translation function gave you the gender of the flippin' nouns. Then you'd have the option of testing your memory, but if you didn't know the gender of an orange in the first place, you'd have somewhere to start
You should suggest it in a discussion (general forum), because they won't read here.
No you don't sound stupid - asking questions is what these discussion boards are for.
Some friuts are masculine and others feminine.
A few examples:-
Feminine - la banane, la fraise (strawberry), une orange, la pêche (peach), la pomme (apple)
Masculine - un abricot, le citron (lemon), le raisin (grape), le pamplemousse (grapefruit).
There's no rules for fruit. and there's no rule for other kind of things or item.
