67 Comments
Because the t in lit is silent and the s in lisent is heard.
I fell for it too
How do you pronounce "lisent"? I'm having an extremely hard time with this, so when I see "lisent" I want to say "lee-scent." English...sigh.
I'm pretty sure when I took french you could hear the difference between lisent and lis but I can't tell what she's saying. :(
Maybe you had a poor instructor. I went through 4 years of university French and the instructor never corrected alot of mistakes students made because there were too many or they were not knowledgeable enough. I heard her pronounced LEES = LISENT, the -ent is pretty much silent, it just makes the last letter before it pronounced. if she was pronouncing Lis it would sound like LEE in English.
its not possible to know if its elle lis des livres or elles lisent des livres
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"Elle lit" is correct and the final T is silent. "Je LIS" or "tu LIS", in both cases S is silent. However in "ils/elles LISENT", it's pronounced "liz"
It is an earing problem like in "poison et poisson". Practice will solve it. But Elle lit... not sound exactly like Elles lisent...
imposible distinguir entre singular y plural, ni sujeto ni verbo, artículo o nombre. ¿como se puede distinguir solo de oida? me estoy planteando no seguir hasta saber la diferencia
El sonido es diferente en el verbo en singular para los hispanoparlantes el verbo lire suena "li" mientras que para la tercera persona del plural suena "lis", tambien es diferente el sonido entre "le" y "les"; en el primero la "e" tiene un sonido mas cerrado, similar (casi como "lo") mientras que "les" el sonido es abierto y suena "le";
What's wrong with 'Elle lise des livres."? Why can't the subject be singular. A single (no pun intended) woman can read many books.
This sentence talks about "they"-some people.
Sure,a single woman can read many books,but the sentence talks about a group of women reading books.
Because it was plural. Also it would be elle lit des livres if it was singular, and the t in lit would be silent. The only way it could be lise, was if it was the subjonctive mood, which expresses a wish, hope, desire, or fear. As for why it is not subjunctive. Well usually the subjunctive uses the word que, and it usually is in a comparison form of several people. But how do you express those concepts without an additional word? You cannot. So she would wish to read, would need the word souhait in there or something.
The language would be correctly structured by she said "elles" not "ils". This is a listening test as well.
Des means some (or mostly for an indefinite article), les is for definite article. When I say -> les enfants I mean -> The children Des refers to indefinite like -> Il a des livres He has interesting books (or) He has some interesting books.
Thanks for the explanation, but I am am wondering what is the relation between des and du. Is there a countable vs uncountable issue? For example: "elle lis des livres" ("she reads some books", with books countable) vs "elle mange du pain" ("she eats SOME bread" with bread uncountable)
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yes, that's exactly the case here. Of course "some" usually wouldn't appear in English translation, it's just implied meaning
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Books is in plural, so you need "livres". Because the number of books isn't specified, you need "des" in this case.
But if you mean when you listen to it – because it's not a gramatically correct/sensible structure and because "des" is pronounced differently than "de"
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nope, "des" relates to (some number of) books, nothing to do with the number/person/gender in the verb: Je lis des livres, Elle lit des livres, Vous lisez des livres etc.
In the previous question 'tu parles des livres' the only accepted translation was you are talking about THE books, and yet here the translation omits the article 'the'. Can anyone help?
It's because of "Parler de" = "To talk about"
Tu parles = You are talking OR You talk
Tu parles de = You talk about
Tu parles de les = You talk about the. However, de+les=des
- Therefore, "Tu parles des" = You talk about the"
- Therefore, "Tu parles des livres" = You talk about the books.
In the sentence "Elles lisent des livres", "des" is the plural of "un". We don't have a plural "a/an" in English, so the article "des" is translated by "some" or by omitting the article. So "Elles lisent des livres can mean:
- They read books
- They are reading books
- They read some books
- They are reading some books
I'm not sure that clarifies it for me. "Parler de" = "to talk about". It would seem this implies that "Lire de" = "to read about", but clearly it doesn't. So how would one say "she read about the books" (as in, for instance, reading book reviews)?
The whole aspect of "des" sometimes being filler, sometimes being "some", and sometimes being "of the" or "about the" is terribly confusing.
"She read about the books" = Elle a lu au sujet des livres".
You have to learn which prepositions to use with each verb. "Lire de" does not mean "read about". Only some verbs use "de" to mean "about".
Many French verbs require a certain preposition in order for their meaning to be complete. Here is an alphabetical list of French verbs and the prepositions they need (if any).
http://french.about.com/cs/grammar/a/verbswithprep_3.htm
A few other verbs that use "de" to mean "about"
- parler de - to talk about
- se plaindre de - to complain about
You should also read this: http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~ra735/grammar/french/littlewords/printprepositions.html and watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwL588a5-8s
I am having an issue understanding when to use "des", "de la", and "du".
I understand the difference between "de la" and "du". I do not understand when it changes to "des", however.
I could say "je mange de la viande", but could I say "je mange des viande"?
After searching further, I found an explanation of the fact that "des" is used for countable things, while "du" or "de la" is used for uncountable things, like meat in my above comment. Can anyone confirm this?
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Correct. Have in mind though that English and French don't necessarily have the same idea about what is (un)countable:
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_2.htm – 2nd point, linking to:
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/singularplural.htm
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/singularplural_2.htm
- Occasionally uncountable nouns can be also countable, meaning different types, so both options are valid in proper context, e.g. des bières, des fromages etc.
The word "des" in this sentence has one definition being "some (of the)", but when I write "They are reading some of the books", it's incorrect? Why? I'm also having a difficult time understanding what "de", "des", "du" is used for as opposed to "le", "les", "la".
"Des" does not mean "some of the". "Des" is the plural indefinite article in French.
Indefinite articles in English = a / an
Indefinite articles in French = un (singular masculine) / une (singular feminine) / des (plural masculine and feminine). Because there is no plural indefinite article in English, we get across that idea by either not using an article at all, or by using "some"
So "They are reading (some) books" = "Ils lisent des livres"
"They are reading some of the books" = "Ils lisent certains des livres" = With this sentence "des" is not the indefinite plural article. It's the contraction of de+les (of the). You don't say "Ils lisent des des livres" in French as a translation of "They read some of the books", instead you say "Ils lisent certains des livres" = Ils(they) lisent(read) some(certains) of the (des) livres (books).
"Elles" is a pronoun, meaning "they." It does not always refer to girls.
Elle lis doesn't exist. You probably were pronouncing it wrong the whole time. Elle lit however does exist. and the t is silent. So it would sound like LEE like jet Li in English. If you hear lis, then you know there are letters after it.
There is an s on the end so it is they, like those girls or they girls. elles.
Why can't this sentence be translated, "The women are reading (some) books?" I realize 'they' can be used in place of either Ils or Elles, but this does specify gender, does it not?
And back to des meaning some! Do get the 'Parle de' making it ' the' but are there any other such traps waiting out there to get me?
Borher. . . . Should of helped you really. Helped me get it right by making me listen again and there was the 's' sound :-)
