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- Topic: French >
- "Tu es bête."
27 Comments
I love the practicality by which Duo centers itself.
This sentence for example, is a very useful sentence. At least to know if I ever hear it!
Hi I wrote "You are a beast" and I was wrong. I remembered the word 'bête' from the French Beauty and the Beast film. Can someone explain how is this so?
bête(n) means beast/animal, bête(adj) means stupid/foolish. In this sentence bête is acting as an adjective because it is describing what "you" (the subject) are. "Tu es un bête" (I believe) would be 'You are a beast' because the "un" makes bête a noun
I just like how the voice sounds like it's smiling this time.
Is 'you're silly' a common meaning in french? Or does it mostly mean stupid/dumb?
1312
Google Translate shows that, when used as an adjective, the second most common usage for bête is silly. This is likely based on their scanning the web and their ability to properly discern the intended meaning.
Both of those factors contribute to well deserved skepticism about Google Translate's reliability but it is interesting. I like to think of Google's translation service as Googly Translate.
- 1312
It can be used to mean silly but you definitely don't want to go around telling French people you think they or their words are bête unless you know them very well.
Bête does not mean funny. Funny (haha) is drôle. Funny (strange) is bizarre. Bête could mean silly however.
No, it stays the same for both genders.
(I guess the more "logical"/regular thing would be for the male form to be "bêt" or the female "bêtte", but there are some adjectives that have the same "e" ending for both genders, e.g. jaune, orange, malade - and bête )
Really? I always thought "Bête" meant Beast, as "La Belle est Le Bête" meant Beauty and the Beast!
- 17
As a noun, bête means beast, animal; as an adjective, it means stupid, daft, foolish, etc. Since there's no article, it's an adjective.
Can someone clarify the use case for this word?
In (Latin) Spanish slang, calling someone a beast generally means they are a brute (clumsy/without manners). It's an insult, although it's not very insulting if you're familiar with the person.
In English slang, calling someone a beast means they are physically imposing, or really good at something.
My confusion here is this: Is using bête to describe a person a French slang, or is it a "proper" use of the word? Is it equivalent to drôle, when meant as silly? Equivalent to stupide, when meant as stupid? How would one know which way it is meant??
- 2264
It may be used as a noun but it is used as an adjective here. In this use, it means "stupid", "idiotic", or "silly". Be aware that the French often use words which are used as outrageous insults in one sense as terms of affection. Clearly, you would need to be very close (familiar) to a person to say such a thing to them. Otherwise, it would clearly be an insult.
Using "daft" is really not a good translation for many forms of English...like US English, for example. Unless your reading Dickens, daft isn't an adjective you'll see much.
"bête" means "thick". "stupide" means "stupid". Although "bête" can be roughly translated as "stupid", it hasn't quite the same meaning.
