"I am a waiter."
Translation:Je suis serveur.
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I think she understands how its written. The question is why is only "je suis serveur" a correct answer when "je suis serveuse" is equally correct? I got it wrong because I used the feminine form when there is no indication of gender in "je suis"
there should not be any ambiguity because in both English and French, the nouns are different in masculine vs feminine:
- I am a waiter = je suis serveur
- I am a waitress = je suis serveuse
Oh I see, I understand my confusion! I guess in my experience (Australia) we don't usually classify waiter and waitress separately, I just use waiter for men and women.
I'm Canadian. The reading voice for this translation pick-list exercise was female, and I automatically picked "serveuse" over "serveur." Reported, fwiw.
In the US, waiter can be used for both men and women. Many words that used to have gender distinctions are trending in this direction. Therefore, I translated this as, "Je suis serveuse" without thinking that waiter had to imply a man.
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"Waitress" is clearly feminine, but "waiter" is unmarked. Gender-neutral English has been a matter of political contention for decades now, and many traditionally masculine terms may now be taken to be gender-neutral. I don't think it's at all clear, in this question, that a masculine answer is required. It's very ambiguous.
Theoretically, "waiter" has a feminine form: "waitress". I seem to understand that some don't like it, but we cannot translate "waiter" by "serveuse" if a proper feminine noun exists.
Except that in most dialects of English (I am a native speaker of US-English, but I've seen Canadian and Australian mentioned on this thread), while "waitress" is marked feminine, "waiter" is no longer marked masculine. It is equally appropriate for a male or female server. So while "I am a waitress" must be "Je suis serveuse", "I am a waiter" could be either serveur or serveuse, depending only on the gender of the speaker, not on the choice of the word "waiter"
Because it said waiter in the english one. Waiter = serveur, waitress = serveuse
Why is it je suis serveur, shouldn't it be je suis un serveur? why isn't there the un/une?
When you state someone's profession with the verbs être, devenir or rester, the profession appears as an adjective and therefore does not have an article.
By itself "un garçon" is a boy.
In the past, you could have used: "je suis un garçon de café" = I am a waiter/server. But it is not much used nowadays.
In addition, if you want to call a server, please don't say: "Garçon !", they don't like it. Use "Monsieur !".
I've always avoided calling waiters ''garçon'' in real life, though I never knew it was actually incorrect/offensive to do so, thanks! :)
There's a lot of back and forth on this thread about the waiter/waitress thing and I just want to clarify, English, as a language, evolves over time and, regardless of how you feel about it politically, many feminine forms of words are falling into disuse. We no longer distinguish between a blond and a blonde and when was the last time you called a dog a bitch, or seriously assumed that an actor could only be male? Outdated versions of lots of words exist and, in this case, holding to an antiquated rule is causing more confusion than it's clearing up which is the opposite of what language is supposed to do.
Insisting on the existing feminine version of some English words, even in disuse, raises your attention on the fact that French uses genders in a different way. Some professions do not have a feminine, like "un professeur", others do have a feminine and it is used, like "une serveuse".
So what counts more is that you demonstrate your full understanding of the French details, with everything you have at hand in English. Your translations will not be published and you are not expected to use your best, natural, stylish and usual English. I know it can be tough, but it's worth the effort because you will better memorize these nuances.
Actually, in the UK, we DO distinguish between blond (m) and blonde (f). We would only call a dog a bitch if it were necessary to emphasize its gender. Most Brits use actor to describe both genders, but actress is still commonly used.
Ditto all the comments before. The system does not recognize a correct answer but only accepts the masculine form.
Since the speaker was a woman, I typed "Je suis serveuse," and was marked incorrect. Strange!
Why trananslating «A waiter» into «Un serveur» not accepted? Why «A waiter» is just a «Serveur» ???
I don't understand why you can't use the article 'un serveur' . can anyone help me?
It is just a grammar rule: when stating a profession with the verb être (+ devenir, rester), professions are used as adjectives and therefore do not have an article.
The exception is when the profession is further described, like "je suis un serveur de grand talent".
Yes the article should be accepted if there is an article in the English translation. Otherwise why include the clue in French under the English word in the question.
Soon, "waitress" will be completely unacceptable and they will have to change their answer ;)