"That book is very small."

Translation: Ce livre est très petit.

[plafonta]

Is it ok to say "Ce livre est tout petit" also, or is this construction only valid for people and not objects?

[ferynn]

You could say that. For instance, "Cet animal est tout petit" This animal is very small, can work. But the closest translation is with "très"

[shriramk]

For those who might make the same mistake as me:

I wrote Cela livre est très petit and the owl crossed out my cela and said it should be ce. I thought the whole point of cela is that it clarifies that vs. this (ceci). However, the owl is right. These only work as pronouns:

http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/indefinite-demonstrative-pronoun.htm

If you want to clarify in the adjective case (as in here), you would have to use the -ci and -là as suffixes after the noun:

http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_demonstrative.htm

So I suppose I could have written Ce livre-là .... I have no idea what the owl would have said about that!

[Josh5now]

I actually put "Ce livre-la (with the accent)" and the owl spit on it :(

[Cornishcynic]

The owl spat on it

[Josh5now]

"spit is also sometimes used for the past tense and past participle, especially in North American English"

http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/spit_1

I do appreciate your help though, but as English is my native language and I'm not an English major or author, I hope you'll forgive me if I continue using the word as I have been my whole life

[Cornishcynic]

Oh . Sorry. In my part of the world, that would be totally wrong,but, vive la difference.

[etchetodg]

I hate that owl. He's so damn smug.

[daysky]

So what is wrong with Ce livre-la (accent grave)?

[Josh5now]

There shouldn't be anything wrong with it - coming from a non-native speaker.

If Duo still rejects it, it needs to be reported as an error

[terryfire]

I also think ce livre - là should not have been spit OR spat upon!

[deactivated user]

why not "ce livre est plus petit"

[ronanmurray25]

Why is "cet" wrong?

[Jonathande61]

cet is only used for for masculine nouns that start with a vowel. So: Cet arbre, but ce livre.