"Mustela murem pinguem captat."

Translation: A weasel tries to grab the fat mouse.

[HMMLiu]

I'm confused about where "tries" is in this sentence.

[Ululare]

captare
to try to grab/capture,

capere
to capture, to grab,..

[MetroWestJP]

English has a couple of phrasal verbs that mean the same thing as captare: to grab for and to grab at. They both mean to try to grab, but without using two verbs. (i.e., A weasel grabs at the fat mouse.) I don't know if those are currently accepted answers, but they might be less confusing.

[RobertEddy]

Sounds like an old time cartoon.

[Septimus734191]

Why shouldn't Duolingo accept "capture" as a translation for captare? It's helpful for me, at least, to use a sound-alike translation I can remember.

[PERCE_NEIGE]

Because it wants the idea of "trying to".

The idea of trying is not here though:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/capture

[SeanMeaneyPL]

All that cheese, so little time.

[Rory_OConor]

Why can't it be: the weasel...

[TedAlkins]

I often get this wrong because 'to grab at' is a more natural phrasing. Having to write the clunky 'tries to grab' doesn't want to stick. And don't get me started on 'to be greedy for'...

[Jensen3.0]

I put "the" instead of "a" in front of weasel and it marked me wrong. Is there a difference?

[Lemma1789]

"The weasel tries to grab a fat rat", why was this marked wrong?

[PauloMuffato]

Wait, don't they accept rat as well?

[ArielMedin948128]

The weasel tries to grab the fat mouse is wrong. It is crazy!

[arturo.belano]

Hilarious.