"Les jeunes adultes ne mangent pas de chocolat."
Translation:The young adults are not eating chocolate.
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But "the" could mean these particular ones were were talking about, but also it could mean "all", no? Like when someone says, "J'aime le cafe." It could be I like this coffee that you been serving me, or that I like coffee in general. At least that's how I understand it (perhaps it's wrong?) So assuming this is true, I would have said "des jeunes..."
I offered "Young adults don't eat chocolate" and it was accepted. So maybe one never knows which young adults (all or these), except for the context? So I never have to worry about getting it wrong when the sentence starts with an article?
"When there is an indefinite article or partitive article in a negative construction, the article changes to de, meaning "(not) any" eg. J'ai une pomme > Je n'ai pas de pomme." (http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adverb_negative.htm)
Put more simply, des, une, du, etc. become de when in negative sentences
Thank you, I understood it from "put more simply" on ;) This is really helpful!
I have a question about, "Les jeunes ne mangent pas de chocolat." My answer was, The young adults do not eat choclate. It was correct, but
another correct solution was: The young adults are not eating choclate. Is this a preferred translation and why?
In French, the present tense (here, "[ils] mangent / ne mangent pas...") can represent any of the following three English thoughts: 1) "They eat / don't eat..." 2) "They are eating / aren't eating" and 3) "They do eat / don't eat..."
In fact, for the first two English sentences, "Ils/Elles mangent..." is the only way to express them in French without adding more precise content (such as "They're in the middle of eating..." / "... in the process of eating...").
I don't think it's a question of one or the other being a preferred translation in this instance: rather, we can't know which English expression would be preferred because we lack any further context for this sentence. If we had "En général" or "À ce moment," we'd be able to choose an English equivalent with more precision. In this case, though, I'd bet money that Duo just wants to remind you that the present tense can do both the job you assigned it and that other one ("... are not eating..."), so you don't forget.
Thank you for the explanation. I hope you don't mind, but I must follow you. I would be sad to lose contact with such an intelligent person.
Je serais très contente de correspondre avec vous ! (Et merci mille fois du gros compliment que vous m'avez fait -- vous me flattez !)
I guess it's someone in their twenties, maybe early thirties. Teenager is "adolescent".
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Uhh .. I would class someone in their early 30s (32, 33, etc.) a young adult .. what would you call them?
Really? Guess you haven't had "A man without body hair is like a garden without flowers." :-}
Why this adjective "jeune" place in front of the noun "adult"? I remember adjectives in French are usually put after the noun.
- 1491
It's a "BANGS" adjective - Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size. Such adjectives come before the noun.
Is the 'de' a preposition? Since 'le' would make more sense to me, if the young adults generally don't eat chocolate.
I have the correct answer of The young adults are not eating chocolate but it was not accepted
What us the difference between "do not eat" and "are not eating" in french
