"Cette destination, je l'ai choisie par hasard."
Translation:This destination, I chose it by chance.
22 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1189
Would, "I chose this destination at random" be okay as well? The "correct" translation sounds too robotic...
Well, there you go! It happens that "...by chance," was far-and-away the most immediate phrase that came to MY mind in this particular context.... Hmm...and I thought I was taking a risk using it ... because I so rarely conform to what Duo's ideas of English dictate.
Besides, we joke in our house that "Random" is a small village just off the A40, near Oxford.
Why mangle it?
"I chose This destination by chance." is much better (and accepted).
The "it" is the point of these exercises, so it's unlikely Duo will accept leaving it out.
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I’ve officially had it with the French to English, and vice versa, translations! At random or randomly should be accepted.
Why is there an 'e' on choisie? I know it is a feminine subject, but it is conjugated with avoir, so I didn't think it needed agreement.
There seems to be a bit of confusion here.
We do not know that it is a feminine Subject, since the subject is "je", which could be either gender.
It also has nothing to do with prepositions. The only preposition in this sentence is "par".
The participles of verbs which conjugate with "avoir" have to agree if (and only if) there is a Preceding Direct Object (ie there is a Direct Object positioned before the verb).
Such is the case here, the participle "choisie" agrees with the object pronoun "la" (in "l'a"), which is feminine singular (from "Cette destination").
Bear in mind that if the Object had been Indirect there would have been no agreement.
If a feminine preposition precedes a verb conjugated with avoir, the verb ending must agree. "cette destination"
randomly, at random, and "by chance" mean exactly the same thing in English. they should be all considered correct. I agree with other comments, only having one "correct" translation is robotic.
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The literalness of the translations in this exercise is at least frustrating, and possibly misleading. It certainly isn't good English.
The only justification for it is to make us aware of the French construction (Object comma subject clause), but it is a very clunky way to do it.
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"this destination I chose by accident" seems to apply - moreso than "by chance", to my ear - or is there another french idiom that is a more precise match to that?
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The proposed translation is not "colloquial" english and as mentioned below a bit "robotic" => Par hasard can often (not always) be translated by "at random" => Please correct
It is most certainly NOT more correct.
Although a chance decision may appear to be random it actually is not.
If you were able to create identical conditions the same decision would be made every time.
The only way to make a random decision (without using an artificial randomiser such as a computer) is to follow a protocol like blindfolding yourself and sticking a pin in a list or picking a ticket out of a hat, but even that is only pseudo-random.
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You can't choose something "by chance". If you choose something then by definition it is specific! It's also not really possible to choose something "at random" for the same reason. "Random = Made, done, or happening without method or conscious decision". Is this logic also questionable in the French statement?
I agree with you about "at random", but I see "by chance" as being slightly different.
If you choose something from a Google page (or some other form of directory) without making a conscious decision, but just by following some protocol (such as not picking an advertising entry) then I would say that is a form of by chance, similar to picking from a hat.
It's still not random, because there are non-random factors affecting the list which you are picking from (the contents of the hat), but there is some chance involved.