"There is a picnic tonight."

Translation: Il y a un pique-nique ce soir.

[Brad85358]

Cette nuit is tonight. Ce soir is this evening. This is aggravating.

[Manyable]

True, but in English we often use "tonight" to say "this evening" ("let's go to a movie tonight", "we have a dinner tonight", "do you have plans for tonight). In French these would translate to "ce soir" (unless you really mean that you have a dinner at 2am...). The French use for "cette nuit/ce soir" is usually pretty straight forward though (unlike in English). In the case of a "picnic tonight" it's safe to assume tonight means this evening, so "ce soir" is the right translation. I agree that for learning though Duo should probably stick to using "evening" rather than night as it could be confusing.

[JollyFuchsia]

Why is pique-nique treated as masculine here ('un' instead of 'une')

[TammyLML]

Pique-nique is a masculine noun. :o)

[JollyFuchsia]

OK. That makes a lot of sense, when you put it like that.

[RonLogan5]

What is the problem with ce soir il y a un picnic.

[TammyLML]

They might accept "Ce soir il y a un pique-nique", even though the words are in a different order than the original sentence. But if you used "picnic", that's the English word for it, so that probably wouldn't be accepted.

[dwh83]

Est ce qu'il y a un pique nique ce soir? Can someone explain what's wrong with this answer please?

[JollyFuchsia]

I believe that would translate to: Is it that there is a picnic this evening?

[DavidLamb53073]

That turns the statement, "There is a picnic tonight", into a question, "Is there a picnic tonight?"