48 Comments
I heard that as well! at normal speed definitely "Ca" Only slowed does it sound "La"
779
Happy to see muchas translated as many rather than the juvenile expression "a lot of" that duo has seemed stuck on.
Muchos is referring to masculine nouns (example, muchos libros, muchos hombres, muchos maestros) OR a combinaron (muchos estudiantes, muchos amigos (They could be all boys, or boys and girls)
Muchas uses ONLY feminine verbs (muchas manzanas, muchas niñas, muchas maestras). When saying "muchas estudiantes", you are talking about a lot of female students, no male students
- 587
In the second paragraph, Treefrog986 meant to say "...feminine nouns..." instead of "...feminine verbs...".
Treefrog986 was exclusively discussing the usage of the term, mucho (mucha), as an adjective.
In this forum thread, we probably will not be discussing other types of usage. For example, this same term, mucho, can also be used as a pronoun or as an adverb.
In a previous translation: La universidad tiene MUCHAS estudiantes. (i had it wrong, because I wrote "muchos") and here comes the twist! After that comes this one: La maestra tiene MUCHOS estudiantes. Could anybody please explain why? Both feminine La maestra and La universidad. Both tiene something. So why one is muchos and the other one is muchas???!?!?!? Thank you
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The first sentence refers to an all-female (sub)group of students, while the latter refers to an all-male or mixed-gender group. The noun estudiante can be masculine or feminine, depending on the gender of the student.
They got me, too. Last time I wrote "muchos" and was wrong, so this time I wrote "muchas" and was wrong again. Guess I'll have to start listening to every sentence in slow speed.
- 330
In an En-Es translation it should be accepted, yes. If you had a listening task, though, you need to match the spoken sentence exactly.
- 587
@JessieDena
"...a lot of..." is three words. That should work.
P.S. thanks for the good advice
- 587
Does everyone understand the question that Dianne5480 was trying to ask in her post? I can write her question more clearly.
quote (paraphrased):
Why isn't the following alternative answer also correct (and acceptable) to Duolingo? unquote"The teacher has
manya lot of students."
The answer to Dianne's question was already provided in the post by RyagonIV.
Sometimes we have to report mistakes to Duolingo. Sometimes it is necessary to submit feedback.
- 212
The pronounciation of the word muchos or muchas is not clear. Sounds like Muchoas. How can you tell if it is female or male that way! Even the spanish speaker next to me couldn't hear if it was muchos or muchas
Mucho, muchos, muchas , it is all driving me crazy. I know the feminine and masculine thing. It is the s on the end of it. Mucho or muchos and mucha or muchas. I think I will take a break.
- 330
If it's describing a singular noun, the adjective will be singular as well. If it's describing a plural noun, it'll be plural.
- mucho queso, mucha agua, mucho/a azúcar
- muchos hombres, muchas mesas, muchos/as estudiantes
estudiantes is usually feminine. Las estudiantes, unas estudiantes, but in this sentence it is muchos estudiantes. What am I missing?
Use muchos for masculine and muchas for feminine. This is my understanding.
vacaciones translates as vacations or holidays in English--not the singular
- 330
If you had it as an En>Es translation, "muchas estudiantes" is fine as well. Estudiante is gender-invariant.
- 295
The male voice is still saying "Ca maestra" on normal mode. Slow speed is correct.
Here they say estudiantes is masculine. Elsewhere they say it is feminine. Can it be both? How can one tell which it is?
- 330
Estudiante can be both, yes. You can tell which gender is meant by articles and adjectives used in conjunction with it. Here it's "muchos estudiantes", and since muchos is plural-masculine, estudiantes is also plural-masculine here.
Since English generally doesn't have gendered nouns, a En-Es translation should allow both "muchos estudiantes" and "muchas estudiantes" here. But if you have it as a listening task, you have to match the spoken sentence exactly.
Am I the only one that slipped on and got it wrong for putting professor instead of teacher... XD
In the last question which was exactly the same except it was UNIVERSITY, the answer showed "muchas" while "muchos" is used here. Both UNIVERSITY and LA MAESTRA are feminine gender so why the difference?
- 330
The gender of an adjective depends on the gender of what it's referring to. In this case you're talking about the number of students. If all the students you're referring to are female, use muchas, otherwise it'll be muchos.
I answered 'the female teacher...' and got the dreaded red light. Why bother switching between genders for maestro/maestra if the inferred gender is not accepted as part of the translation?
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Because Spanish has gendered nouns but English doesn't. In Spanish, the 'o' or 'a' at the end is an inherent part of the word - you can't just leave it out. While in English it's unnecessary to mention anyone's gender. If you say "female teacher" here, you're putting special focus on the gender, which the Spanish sentence doesn't do.
