"I like fish."

Translation: J'aime le poisson.

[snarang1]

why is it not ;J'aime du poisson?

[georgeoftruth]

Verbs of appreciation (likes or dislikes) such as "aimer" always need a definite article (le, la, l', les) for its object.

• J'aime le poisson = I like fish
• Il aime la pizza = He likes pizza
• Nous aimons les oiseaux = We like birds

[deals_]

It says i like fish, not i like the fish. So "J'aime poisson" should be correct, no?

[georgeoftruth]

Not at all. You cannot translate word for word since the two languages have different rules. At the very least, the noun "poisson" needs an article. And as I said above, "aimer" always takes a definite article.

[-Goca-]

I wrote:
"J'aime poisson"
and it is not correct.
Why we need "le"?

[RonMcCulla]

surely fish in this case is plural? j'aime des poisons

[georgeoftruth]

Not necessarily. You can like uncountable things: I like chocolate. I like bread. I like meat. I like fish. Also, in sentences like these, the verb “aimer” takes the definite article.

[Lauren266518]

Duolingo-- please change this question. Merci. Or accept: J'aime des poissons. I envisioned a fish take full of LIVE fish. Now I see you mean people are eating these hypothetical fish.

[georgeoftruth]

"J'aime des poissons" will never be correct because it's grammatically wrong. The verb "aimer" must take the definite article "les". It doesn't matter what it means. This is a perfectly valid sentence to teach you that rule.

[hiro934956]

In the Internet I saw: J' aime les poissons. Is it correct?
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091123203456AAq0ebM

[georgeoftruth]

Yes, it is correct.