30 Comments
681
I was rather surprised that "the pockets of the suit are small" wasn't accepted.
There are a few reasons for that the foremost is that the suit, and not the pockets, is the subject of the sentence. Another factor to consider, is the usage, I find a grammar book apart from usage to be incomplete. Lastly, word order differs from language so do not think that we can use the same order in translation. In German the verb is often at the end of the sentence, and one would sound like Yoda to do the same in English.
It isn't the "costume" that is small, it's the pockets. "Poches" is both feminine and plural = petites.
Because costume is a masculine noun.
- du (+ masculine noun)
- de la (+ feminine noun)
- de l’ (when noun begins with vowel sound)
I think the question is de or du because its "of" not "some" I thought it was de when the translation was the preposition?
I had the same thought process. If. For example, if we were translating the sentence All suit pockets are small- would the translation be- "Les poches des costumes sont petites?"
- 355
For phrases like this, you must include "the" after "de" because the suit is specific; saying "les poches de costume" is like "suit pockets" as opposed to "suit's pockets", in which case suit is an adjective for pockets.
- 1037
I thought that, in English, you can use another noun (here suit) as a kind of determiner or adjective, so that the apostrophe is not needed. Maybe a grammarian could refute or corroborate this statement? Edit .. , so that the apostrophe + s (’s) is not needed)
Exactly. We do it all the time with inanimate objects. Putting two nouns together in this way makes the first an adjective. The suit pocket, the car door, the box lid and so on. I'm no grammarian, but they keep telling me English has no grammar...
Yes, you often can do that in English. The suit pockets are small is accepted as well.
i agree because i also translated in this way not for a word-for-word translation but i would say it this way in English as well: the pockets of this suit are small.
Why did they use 'du' and not 'des'? Also, I thought 'du' stood for some.
de + le = du, this is the French descriptive article. Essentially it is "the pockets of the (de + le) suit," which in English we usually write as "the suit's pockets"
Here's more information.
The preposition "of" hasn't been introduced in the given options. Isn't that strange?
There are multiple correct answers that do not include "of." If you are using word tiles, it doesn't allow for all possible translations. If you prefer to enter your own response, you can change the settings by clicking on the keyboard icon and get writing exercises rather than tap tile exercises.
- 11
I put "the pockets in the suit are small". It counted it wrong and said I used the wrong word. It said "The suit's pockets are small" and had the "oc" in pockets underlined. Not sure why it thought I used the wrong word???? Pockets was spelled right????
- 316
Why initial sound sounds like 'Ee lay' instead of 'lay'? Listen carefully.
