"Ces artisans sont chers mais sympas."
Translation:These craftsmen are expensive but nice.
37 Comments
Why in this day and age is "crafts people" rejected? It is shameful enough to make us re-do an entire tree from scratch just because DL added a few hundred words, but to penalize us for using contemporary, politically acceptable English? This is a thoroughly exasperating exercise in futility. The German upgrade was FAR superior. Please revert DL French to alpha or beta status.
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I see no problem with calling a woman "a craftsman", and it's sexist to specifically point out her gender by calling her "a craftswoman".
The suffix "-man" already means "human", "person" or "one" not "adult male", so there's no need to invent a politically correct word "craftsperson".
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The term 'Crafter(s)' is now very popular in the UK. It avoids gender, covers numerous crafts and it is much beloved by TV crafts programmes and channels. Oh, and crafters : )
- 372
Hmmm. I've never heard "crafter" used and I know quite a few artisans and artists here in the UK.
Additionally, as you'd need to use the masculine in French for a mixed gender group. So, unless we have further context, a gender neutral form like "craftspeople" is a better translation. (And surely also shows greater understanding?)
No, it wasn't even particularly common when I was growing up and not everyone would understand it if used.
Everyone understands "expensive". Those who are exposed to a higher register of (Australian) English understand and sometimes use "dear".
I wonder why it's not letting me use the word artisans in English. It is an English word as well
But what is the difference between "nice" and "kind"? Honest question. Perhaps there is a stronger distinction in French?
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Nice = pleasant, agreeable, and polite
Kind = caring about others and showing you care through actions.
Someone else explained it like this: it's nice to not to kick someone who is down; it's kind to offer them a helping hand.
I'd say an artisan is someone who is skilful at making beautiful things by hand that can be used e.g. furniture, jewellery etc, whereas an artist is someone who is talented at making beautiful (sometimes) things to look at like paintings. You might even say someone , who is very talented in their work, like a gardener, joiner etc is an artisan.
Can this be translated to a generic word like craftspeople rather than craftsmen. I know in French if you are talking about a mixed group you default to the male but the English translation would use a gender neutral term.
- 378
just venting What the heck!?! Cette artisane = this artisan, Ces artisans = these craftsmen? Why?
Not sure about the context of "nice" here. If you were looking for a recommendation you would want to know "these craftsmen are expensive but good."
Also, I just looked up 'sympa' in my Robert and my Collins dictionary and neither had 'nice'. Both had 'agreeable' and 'likeable', much better words than 'nice'. They also had 'friendly' but not a 'nice' in sight.
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I don't understand.! I write right but duolingo don't consider it correct !
I would say, as a native English speaker that they would be n ice but expensive. Seems awkward the other way.
Nice was a word my english teacher taught us to avoid as lazy writing. Please can we have a few more better translations. My french friends tell me that sympa means nice as in friendly and well disposed.
It's lazy writing when you end up with a story about having a nice day with your nice friends at a nice funfair eating nice candyfloss and going on nice rides.
It's the same with any word that gets overused. Nice just happens to be a common one encountered by primary school teachers.
However, nice is a perfectly good word, and you weren't supposed to remove it from your vocabulary permanently. Reducing your vocabulary is the opposite of what your teacher was intending.
Moreover, here we're less interested in exercising a broad English vocabulary, than understanding of a French sentence. So, as 'sympa' means 'nice', there's nothing wrong with 'nice' as a translation.
(Also, as we are talking about English usage, 'more better' is simply wrong - it's just 'better'.)
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As time goes on duo gives more and more sentences that I will never find application for. For instance sentence for this exercise "These craftsmen are expensive but nice" - I don't understand its nature, when would I use it? "Expensive" as in "they ask for a high wage" and "but nice" as in "those who don't ask for a high wage are normally nice but those who do ask for a higher salary are generally rude". See? Often duo suggests gramatically correct sentences but semantically they are weird, or sort of incomplete, or out of context, or both. Would you not try to give sentences that you can actually use in your daily life if you were to teach someone a foreign language?
I took this as the goods they're selling are expensive but it's a very pleasant purchasing experience.
Odd sentences are directly useful in terms of learning - you have to extract the meaning via your knowledge of sentence structure and grammar. (Even better would be nonsense; like 'Christmas Day in the Workhouse' or the works of Edward Lear.)
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Why is thus sentence not accepted? "These artisans are expensive but friendly." The Larousse Français-Anglais Dictionnaire has the following definition:
sympa [sε̃pa] (familier) adjectif [personne, attitude] friendly, nice [lieu] nice, pleasant [idée, mets] nice
I was brought up not to use "nice" as it was regarded as lazy, too generic, but told always to try to find a more appropriate adjective. Is "sympa", similarly, a lazy, catch-all word that should be replaced by something better where possible?
