"I am eating a pizza."
Translation:Je mange une pizza.
33 Comments
In ancient France, men handled responsibility of cooking for the king and the court. However, during one of the wars, France was short on men and all men were forced to take arms. The women became responsible for the kitchen, and one such woman named Pizza came up with the idea of pizza. In addition to naming the dish after her, to honor her great invention, the pizza was given a feminine status.
Now although I've totally made up this story, I hope that pizza is feminine will get registered well in your brain.
Okay bye!
Une vs un with objects? I thought une was with feminine and un was not... But what about objects like pizza vs orange or pomme?
In French objects are all assigned a gender. Pizzas, oranges, and pommes are all feminine nouns, so "une pizza," "une orange," and "une pomme." Some masculine nouns include livre (book), stylo (pen), and vélo (bike), "un livre," "un stylo," and "un vélo."
This is a tricky aspect of French and it is best to memorize the indefinite article (un or une) along with the noun as though it is part of the word, because in a way it is. This will save you a big headache later!
Why does "mange" mean both "eat" and "am eating"? I saw it several times and duolingo take the both translations correct.
Yes, je mange means both I eat and I am eating. French doesn't have the continuous present tense like English. Context is sufficient to tell whether someone "is eating" or "eats" in French.
CommeuneTexane Please tell me about this. At some places, I saw 'mange'='is eating', and 'manges'='am eating'. But here. They are saying that 'Mange=am eating' . What is this going on?
Hi, somehow your comment was deleted before I could answer it. "Mange" can be either "am eating" or "is eating" depending on whether it is the first person singular or the third person singular.
je mange → I am eating
tu manges → you are eating
il/elle/ on mange → he/she/one is eating
Thank you. Actually I think i deleted it because I figured the answer from some another source. Thanks for clearing the doubt anyways.
I suggest that you let go of trying to make sense of which words are feminine and which are masculine. Really, there isn't much rhyme or reason, it just is. Just memorize the article with each new noun, use the new vocabulary frequently, and eventually it will seem "natural" that a pizza is feminine.
78
My native language is portuguese and we also have a genre pretty much for every noun. As I'm used to ~ feminine pizza ~ it's actually weird to imagine pizza as a masculine noun.
(trivia: not all of the genres match in pt x fr, so is confusing sometimes)
How will get to know the sequence of the words to be put together to form a meaningful sentence ?
Some of the words are in a slightly different order than English, but basic structure is the same as English for a sentence: subject + verb.
In the beginning, please hover your mouse over new vocabulary words. This will give you hints and help you with the sequence.
Sure. Pizzas are countable nouns. For your family you may order a pizza, but for a hungry football team you may order 7 or 8 pizzas.
I think , for the most part you just have to memorize whether a noun is masculine or feminine.
The French present tense does not make this distinction between present and present continuous tense like English. Either translation is correct.
Are all foods feminine? Is there any general logical grouping to masculine and feminine, or is it all more or less random?
No, some foods are feminine and others are masculine. Your best bet is to memorize the indefinite article (un or une) with the noun. Think of it as a part of the word.
un sandwich
un café
une bière
une orange
Je mange means both "I eat" and "I am eating." French doesn't être to form a present progressive tense like English uses to be.
I AM EATING A PIZZA. Come on Duo! I put "Je suis mange une pizza"! Am I wrong???
That isn't correct. French does not have a continuous present tense like English, and je mange means both "I eat" and "I am eating".
Ce n'est pas "une" pizza, c'est "un" pizza. Pizza is masculine not feminine.
