"Computer scientists are doing an important work today."
Translation:Les informaticiens font un travail important aujourd'hui.
22 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The an is incorrect in English and makes the sentence very clumsy. An important job is ok but not an important work. Unless you are talking about something specific eg that painting is an important work
This meaning of "work" is uncountable, so the sentence needs to be "Computer scientists are doing an important piece of work today" or "Computer scientists are doing (some) important work today". "A work" means "a (master)piece", as in "a work by Mozart".
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I'm unclear on something and would really appreciate some help. Why "Les informaticiens" and not "Des informaticiens". From what I understand, the "Des" makes the statement non specific (So "Some Computer Scientists" as opposed to "these specific computer scientists"). So I suspect that there's something here, possibly idiomatic, which I don't understand correctly or am unaware of.
Generalities in French use the definite article. The English sentence says that computer scientists in general are doing an important work today, so in French it says "les informaticiens". "des informaticiens" would indeed be "some computer scientists".
I just tried it without the "un," and it was deemed incorrect. Duo needs to change the English sentence so that it reflects something someone would actually say in English.
Toby284585’s post is absolutely right and Duolingo’s database should be amended to reflect his comments.
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Hmm... but this English isn't accepted as the translation of - Les informaticiens font un travail important aujourd'hui - please update
If you mean "Computer scientists are doing an important work today", it is accepted. You may have had a small error somewhere in your sentence though (I see a report for "important work" without the article, for example).
If you don't mean that sentence, you have to tell us what sentence you're talking about - we can't see what you wrote or what the computer said.
But why is it 'les informaticiens' when the sentence in English doesn't say 'THE computer scientists'?
Generalities in French use the definite article. The English sentence says that computer scientists in general are doing an important work today, so in French it says "les informaticiens".
So whether it was "Comp scientists" or "The comp scientists" the French translation would be "les" however if the english version specified "some comp scientists" that's when we use Des???
Please be more precise-and in this case actually correct - in the mistake explanation. My mistake wasn't incorrect gender but incorrect number in the article. Corrections and thus effective learning would be easier if this problem could be rectified.
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Nancy Ann,
That improvement might be difficult given the current state of computer technology. But I imagine the informaticiens are doing an important work to improve the system. ;-]
I disagree with people who challenge the English usage. I understand the argument with respect to the use of "an" but is very straightforward to construct situations where this is is an appropriate construction.
I would have thought the sense of the sentence would be better conveyrd by something like "de nos jours".
