"Je retourne le verre."
Translation:I am turning the glass upside down.
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"turn" is the first translation of "retourne", but "I turn the glass" was wrong. So when does it mean "turn"?
Yeah. To turn anything over, you would use retourner. I've noticed that any time you see a verb in French that has the prefix "re-", It usually has a couple meanings: both the cognate form "to return" as well as a meaning having to do with "again", like "to turn again" or "to turn [something] back." Such as a glass.
The same with sembler and ressember. (to seem and to "re-seem!")
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Rendre is the verb for to give back or to return. Retourne is the verb for turning something upside down or turn something over. I am not a native French speaker so I stand to be corrected.
If that's teh case then "I return the glass" should not be marked correctly, no? It currently is marked as correct
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You are correct. It is not the first time that I have noticed they make those kind of errors...
If you're blowing glass, doesn't it make sense to just turn the glass? So why is "I turn the glass" wrong?
I think that tourner is the more general word for turn, which you would use for traffic, rotating objects as in glassblowing, etc. while retourner has more a sense of "turn over" or "turn around" and specifically "turn upside down".
An answer to this would be really great! what's the deal with all these french words beginning in re\ra. it seems like there are many "regular" words that has a "twin" that just starts with re? and sometimes with ra. can someone explain please?
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I was only given option: to turn (and all variations of it). I entered "turn". Got it wrong. It was corrected to "return". Not the same "translation" as the one from above "here"...
"Retourner à" with a location is "to return to...", but it is wrong for "return the glass." I bet the programming on some of these multiple meaning type words must be very difficult. With this verb, you can turn the glass over or upside down. You should not use just "turn". https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/retourner
With an extra word it can mean "turn", so "retourner en arriere" is "to turn back."
The audio i got on this challenge was the male speaker, and there is an issue with his pronounciation. he pronounces the present 'retourne' as the past participle version 'retourné'.
Is this a quizz? We are learners , beginners ! How could I know that the speaker is turning the glass , and by verre he means the glass? Why not something else which is similar in pronunciation to verre?????
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Not (no longer) if you use the Duolingo app on an iOS device. That has the appalling, deterrent from learning, Health Feature where you lose a 'life' for each mistake. Lose five lives and you are thrown out and unable to complete the 'lesson'. You are then locked out for a period of time. So that, I think, definitely changes it from a lesson to a test.
It also means you are expected to already know everything and not make silly mistakes. Unfortunately, many times, one gets penalised by errors in the courses.
I no longer use the app but use the website version instead. That also has the benefit of direct access to the notes and these discussions.
Yes, that is annoying, I too prefer the web version for that reason, but it was designed to slow people down from just doing a bunch of lessons the wrong way, to make them stop and think about it. You were able to scroll down and choose a tab that would get you to a screen where you could practice previously done lessons to regain the ability to continue.
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I'm afraid I found the stated intentions entirely spurious. It now even applies if one is revising subjects after completing the Tree.
The worse case, especially in the French tree, is that there are a significant number of questions where it seems one is expected to already know all French idioms and answers are marked incorrect if a literal translation is supplied. In a few instances, the literal translation should be perfectly acceptable, just not the most common usage. On most other occasions a more literal interpretation is usually required/expected and idiomatic translations marked incorrect. I appreciate that the lessons were most probably created prior to the introduction of the Health Feature, and so not the fault of the course creators, but it makes the app extremely irritating and next to useless as a learning tool - in my opinion.
Literal translations can often be wrong. Here is an article that I find really useful for the many similar verbs like this one: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-say-return-in-french-4084862
This source helps me since this dictionary has quite a few examples of the word being used: https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/retourner
Then for the more advanced student, there is the French dictionary Larousse:
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/retourner/68911
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A minute ago you didn't know it. Now you do know it. Therefore you learned it. Be happy!
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pay attention This verb can be transitive or intransitve and take etre or avoir in the passe compose depending on the meaning
the definition of retourne is not clear to me. it seems like each time it means something else and that it has many translations. would someone like to shed some light over it?
There are many examples here and sometimes a preposition or another word is required for a different meaning. https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/retourner
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turn upside down: Put in disorder, mix or mess up; inverting something so that the upper part becomes the lower (or vice versa) to throwing into disorder or confusion.