"Le garçon et la fille sont calmes."
Translation:The boy and the girl are calm.
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There are several issues that new learners struggle with here:
- The articles (All French nouns have a gender. "Le" is used for masculine gender nouns; "la" is used for feminine gender nouns. You will need to learn to recognize them. You will usually tell the difference by hearing if it is "le" or "la" because they sound different. The plural "le" and the plural "la" are both "les". No, there is no shortcut to learning what the gender is.)
- Pronunciation (First, it is a new language. Some of the sounds will seem foreign until you get used to hearing them. Yes, sometimes the "robot" voice may not be perfect, but it is what it is. Practice listening to the audio. Try forvo.com or other sites to hear recordings of actual human beings if that help you.)
- Conjugating verbs (You must know how to conjugate verbs in English first, since this is the course of "French for English-Speakers". Then you will need to conjugate them in French as well. The verb être (to be) is irregular. Je suis = I am. Tu es = You are (singular/informal). Il/Elle est = He/She is. Nous sommes = We are. Vous êtes = You are (plural "you" or polite "you", either singular or plural). Ils/Elles sont = They are. There is no single French word for "are"; you must learn how to conjugate the verb to choose the correct word. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/fl/French-Verb-Conjugator-How-To-Conjugate-French-Verbs.htm
- French adjectives must "agree": French adjectives are different than English adjectives in several ways. In French, most French adjectives have masculine and feminine forms and most of them also have singular and plural forms, too. The form of the French adjective must agree (match/correspond) with the gender and number of the noun it modifies. Le petit garçon = the little boy. Les petits garçons = the little boys. La petite fille = the little girl. Les petites filles = the little girls.
- Placement of French adjectives: Although it is not needed in this exercise, in English, adjectives always go before the noun they modify but in French they usually (but not always) follow the noun: l'oiseau jaune = the yellow bird. There are a number of French adjectives which must be placed before the noun they modify. These follow what is called the BANGS rule. They are adjectives of Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness/Badness, and Size. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_4.htm
- Accents or Special Characters: French uses special characters in many words: it's "garçon" (not "garcon"). Missing the accent or special character is considered a spelling error. Sorry, that's just how it is. How to type these special characters? It's easy. On your tablet or smartphone, hold your fingertip on the letter for just a second. A little pop-up will appear giving you a choice to select the special character you want. If you use a Windows computer, you can type all the special characters from your standard QWERTY keyboard. Go to Control Panel, Languages, Languages and Keyboards, Change Keyboard, <select> US International. Click "add" and "save". Now you can type special characters like é è ê ù ç, etc. You can add the accent aigu by typing « ' » followed by "e" to get é. Type « ' » followed by "c" to get ç; « ^ » followed by "e" to get ê, etc. If you want to type a normal apostrophe, just type « ' » and a space.
Eh, I have a question. I speak both Spanish and English and I need clarification on exactly what this sentence is saying.
In Spanish I don't believe you can say the same sentence without being more specific as to which meaning. 1. El niño y la niña son tranquilos. 2. El niñó y la ñina estan tranquilos.
So in French is it... 1. The boy and the girl are calm (in nature/demeanor?) or 2. The boy and the girl are calm (at this moment?)
Or could it be both?
Was that a multiple choice question? In french, when we have adjectives (such as "calme" or "riche") the spelling (and sometimes the pronunciation) changes with the number and the gender. If I say "le garçon et la fille sont calmes", I have to add a "s" at the end of "calme" because there are several calm people in this case. So if you had a choice like "calme, calmes, riche", "calmes" would actually be the only possible option here because it is the only plural form.
French is a bit tricky at the beginning, especially for a native english speaker since a lot of these grammatical points make no sense at all in english (there are no direct equivalent of changing the adjectives spelling depending on the gender and the number). But you'll get there, don't worry. This is one of these languages that are very very difficult to learn at the beginning, but it will become easier. The only problem is that you will need to study the grammar a lot.
You can also try to use some other websites to learn more vocabulary in parallel with Duolingo, and study some french grammar somewhere else. I think for this kind of difficult languages, other complementary applications for studying are necessary.
Verb être (=to be) in present tense indicative:
Je suis=I am
Tu es=You are (N.B. informal singular you)
Il est=He/it is
Elle est=She/it is
On est=One is (N.B. one is not a number here)
Nous sommes=We are
Vous êtes=You are (N.B. either formal singular you, formal plural you or informal plural you)
Ils sont=They are (used for all masculine group, or a mixed gender group)
Elles sont=They are (used for all feminine group)
In french calme and calmes has the same sound, te answer is in plurar form because the sentence mention two persons "garçon et fille" the pronoun for these personns are they( in french is ils or elles) an the verb "to be"(être) for these pronouns is "sont". disculpa si tiene algún error mi explicación ya que mi lengua nativa es el español.
It is difficult in the beginning to distinguish between le and les. It is a matter of training the ears to pick up the different and new sounds. Type them at www.forvo.com and listen to native French speakers pronouncing them. Listen repeatedly until you can hear the difference. Good luck!
Yes, it is and does. Hey! I thank you for this post of yours. I started writing that Calme was an adjective or noun; not a verb but after a lot of research found that you are correct. It's not listed in the wonderful about.com site nor on most others. It is certainly a verb in English which is what aroused my suspicions over my intended reply. After loads of research I found your truth. Thanks again. Is Calmer as a verb rarely used, then? Strange that it's so illusive in the French sites.
That is a really good thought. And that is the thought behind the verb form sont (ils sont=they are), that is why that exactly verb form is correct and none other.
But Le garcon et la fille sont calmes can not be translated into They are calm. You have to keep the parts of "they" and translate them: The boy and the girl are calm.
That is right, the final s is not pronounced unless the word is in front of a word beginning with a vowel sound (vowel or silent h). That is as the French grammar is constructed.
The plural is heard in speech in the articles des, les, mes, tes, ses and the plural persons nous=we, vous=plural you, ils=they, elles=they and their corresponding verb forms.
For plurals in French, the 's' is always silent (so it is not pronounced). However, if there is a liason, the 's' may be pronounced. A liason is when the plural is followed with a vowel. For example "Les hommes ont un chien". Here the 's' is pronounced because 'hommes' is followed by 'ont' which begins with a vowel.
Two sites worth looking at: On google "www.about.com/fr grammar verb conjugator" (type all that I've put between " " ), follow the links; and on youtube "French lesson 2: conjugation of - er verbs, subject pronouns by Rafatheman" ( type all I've put between " " ). There are 3 groups of verb conjugations: 1) those infinitives ending in - "er", 2) those ending in "ir" and 3) those ending in "re". These sites give some order to it all and help prod the memory.
OK Aseven............ "Le" (pronounced Luh)= "The"' preceeding a masculine noun. "La"(pronounced Lah)= "The", preceeding a feminine noun. (Le livre= the book <masculine noun>:::::: La table=the table <feminine noun>). "Sont"="Are"... They ARE in the house. When to use Le or La is a matter of acquaintance over years of usage. There are no rules. The gender of a noun is routed in Latin. Consequently there is no "why" nor "wherefore". Genders of nouns reaches far back into Linguistics and there are debates about the origins. For example, a school of thought suggests that before Aramaic a table was the realm of a woman, whereas a book was the realm of a scholar.... a male. How many scriptures in any religion have been written by, or attributed to a woman until very recently? Anyway, if the noun is masculine "Le" for "The" is used. If the noun is feminine "La" for "The" is used. "Sont" is "Are", so both the masculine and feminine "Le" and "La" "Are" articles. "Le et La Sont des articles"
In English, only the following sound dictates wich pronouncuation "the" takes: "the girl" has another "the sound" than "the elephant".
In French both the following sound, and the gender and the number has something to say. All nouns are either masculine or feminine (in some rare cases both). And all nouns are have a singular and a plural form.
The thing to learn is each noun together with its gender: "une pomme" - feminine, instead of just "pomme", because each noun is always accompanied by an article: un/une/des; le/la/l'/les; du/de la/de l'/des or some other grammatical class acting as article.
un/une, le/la/l', du/de la/de l' are all singular and des and les are plural. The plural articles do not care about the gender of the noun, but the singular articles do. And all articles except un/une do behave different depending on if the following sound is a vowel or consonant. The le and la are both contracted to a l' if the following sound is a vowel, and the s in des and les is heard (as a z) only if the following sound is a vowel.
Back to English, the person doing something decides which verb form to be used: talk or talks; am, are or is.
In French, both the following sound and the gender and the number have something to say.
Each verb has six different forms for each tense, compared to the English two or three forms. Each form is connected to a certain kind of subject called 1st person singular (that is I), 2nd person singular (that is you), 3rd person singular (that is he, she or it), 1st person plural (that is we), 2nd person plural (that is you) and 3rd person plural (that is they).
An advice is to learn each verb form together with its person: "ils sont"="they are" instead of learning the verb forms and persons separately: "ils"="they" and "sont"=are. In the latter case is it much more difficult to know when to use this "are" and wehen to use any of the other "ares": "es", "sommes" and "êtes".
All verb forms of verb être (=to be) in present tense indicative:
Je suis=I am
Tu es=You are
Il/elle/on est=He/it/she/it/one is
Nous sommes=We are
Vous êtes=You are
Ils/elles sont=They are
I'm afraid in many languages including French every noun is either masculine or feminine. Not BOTH though. To make matters worse, there's no rhyme nor reason to it either. An egg (what is more female than that?) in French is masculine "UN œuf" but war, an utterly male-orientated thing is feminine "LA guerre". Could it get worse still? ........YUP! Indeedy. All nouns gender needs be learned by heart. At least you're not alone with this massive task and I hope you are no longer confused..... maybe just a little frustrated? Bonne chance mon ami. JJ.
"Calm" is the English word. The French word is "calme" (for both masculine and feminine nouns). When the adjective modifies a plural noun (or as in this case, plural nouns), the adjective changes to its plural form (calmes). French adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. There are a few exceptions which you will learn along the way.
By now, you have learned how to conjugate French verbs, at least some of them. Even though, "sommes" and "sont" do sound a little similar, you will never mistake them if you pay attention to the subject of the sentence. In English, the verb to be is conjugated as "are" in the 2nd person singular and all the plural forms. First-person singular is "I am"; third-person singular is "he/she is". But the word "are" does not have just one word in French; it depends on if it is you (singular), or we/you/they (plural). Each of these has its own separate word in French.
- Nous sommes = we are (this is the first-person plural form of the verb)
- Les hommes sont = the men are (this is the third-person plural form of the verb)
- Ils/Elles sont = they are (also third-person plural)
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The correct translation for this sentence is The boy and the girl are calmed. You always use ed at the end of verb when the are used after the verb to be.
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I don't know why I couldn't have said "the boy and the girl are rich." Unless rich is spelled differently than it appears.
It is a little more than the one word "are"; it is about how the verb is conjugated:
- Je suis = I am
- Tu es = You are (when "you" is singular and informal, i.e., a friend)
- Il/Elle est = He/she is
- Nous sommes = we are
- Vous êtes = you are (the "polite" you, either singular or plural)
- Ils/Elles sont = they are
-1-1 the same time as a result of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing is that the company that I am writing because the last two days after a while since I was wondering if anyone has any questions or concerns about the same time as a result of the most important thing is that the only thing I can get a chance of getting a new one of the most important thing for the delay in responding so much more than happy
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Yes. See the first post at the top of this thread where it says that numbers of things must agree.(fourth bullet point if memory serves).
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Still cant figure out why sometimes typos are recognized while other obvious typos are not