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- Topic: French >
- "Vous êtes plutôt petite."
38 Comments
Petite or petites are both correct because the final T is pronounced. In the masculine petit, the final T is silent. When you hear the final T, you know it's feminine. E or ES should both be possible answers, because vous can be singular or plural.
48
thanks. i put petit and sat there confused for a while. is 'tu' always singular? i hear canadian french uses vous for plural (you all)
...aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper? (Or maybe "stormtroopers", as the original French sentence is in plural.)
Is it possible to say: « Vous êtes assez petite. » for "You are rather small."? as well?
Yes, rather or quite small can be translated to plutôt or assez. This is a relative assessment.
it could either be petite or petits because the 't' is heard at the end of the word and the vous could be taken in the formal sense or the plural sense
I translated petite as little, instead of small, and was marked wrong. Aren't they synonymous?
- 367
My question exactly - why not little? petit means small or little, and it is the sort of thing you would say to a child.
I put "you are rather petite" because saying "you are rather small" is fairly rude. And we do use the word "petite" in English
Ceci devrait marcher aussi, n'est-ce pas? "Vous êtes plutôt petites". Merci pour les possibles réponses. À bientôt
If the sentence is dictated, yes, you can understand it as plural as well.
"you" has 3 meanings in French:
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"tu" is singular and familiar, what you use with family, friends, colleagues. Masculine: tu es petit; feminine: tu es petite
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"vous" is singular and polite/respectful when you talk to people you don't know or policemen, or judges or anyone with authority. Masculine: vous êtes petit; feminine: vous êtes petite
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"vous" is also the plural "you all" when you address a group of people. Masculine: vous êtes petits (all males or a mix of males and females); feminine: vous êtes petites (all females).
Therefore, for the English "you are small", depending on context, you can use 6 different translations.
- 2300
It is true that many say "you all" in English, but it is a colloquial form and not the best example of American English. We commonly say "you" whether referring to a single person or a group of people. By showing "vous" as "you all" suggests that this is the expected use; rather it is simply "you" (plural).
Sorry, after reading all the different "petit" "petite" "petites" I can just see it coming up as the last word and "bang" goes the bell. Please kindly clarefy the slelling, I got the sounding, I hope
When you hear [petiT], it is feminine; in masculine, the pronunciation is [peti]
I would like to suggest the UK English "fairly" as a reasonable synonym for "rather" in the context. Thank you. (It's disallowed at the moment).
I agree with Margaret. English speakers would often find it more polite to say, "You are rather petite" to a woman or a girl.
