"We are meeting up at the square, next to the statue."
Translation:On se retrouve sur la place, à côté de la statue.
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This construction of "meeting up" tells me you are hitting a certain engagement. In other words, "We are going to find ourselves [right here]." In contrast, "Se réunir" sounds unspecified and familiar: Nous avons réuni tous nos amis pour l'anniversaire de mon mari or Nous nous réunissons en juin pour l'anniversaire de notre grand-mère. Thanks to the similar history of the languages, we can lean on the etymology of "to reunite" for "se réunir", which means to unify again; to bring back together, or come back together, after separation. It might sound cool and acceptable if your friends were The Avengers ;)
why "à la place" not accepted? What's the difference between "sur..." and "à..."
my question too - the prompts give a la place. Is it just custom to say meet on the square rather than at the square? From memory, in French, people live on a street not in a street
Generally, the French use sur for places that you stand on top of, like sur la place or sur le parking. Also in this case "à la place" has a different specific meaning of "instead of".
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I think "rencontrer" is more like meeting someone for the first time, or running into to someone that you know.
Another one - why isn't "se réunit" accepted? It was emphasized in an earlier lesson as "meeting up."
It is brief, like a tryst or a bump into someone: Ce matin, j'ai rencontré Pierre au marché. It can also be used for sports or how roads/rivers meet. To put this in context—although it may be tough for some of you fact-based people out there—imagine how you feel if someone says, "I'm going to meet you at the square." It is not "wrong," as you guys like to say, but it is very direct/forced and sharp.
Don't know about others, but for me, "I'm going to meet you at the square" sounds perfectly OK in UK English.
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There are a lot of complaints on this one, so I'll add another. Why does Duo insist on saying "meeting up" and not just "meeting"? I never say "meeting up".
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Well...that makes a certain amount of sense now that I've seen your comment, but was previously not something I had ever noticed.
Technically yes, but I think Duo is trying to teach the use of "on" in the third person, which in informal French is used more than "nous". Pour example "On y va" (let's go} sounds and feels right. "Nous y allons" is wierd.
Trouver is basically to find. So retrouver is to find again, and se retrouver is to find each other again. "we will find each other again at the square" = "we will meet (up) (again) at the square "
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Okay, but what if we're meeting up at the piece of art/architecture that is a literal square? "Nous nous retrouvons à la carrée"?