"Allô, entreprise Truc et Fils, je vous écoute."

Translation: Hello, Thing and Son company, I'm listening.

[MichaelDix197959]

What the actual? The sentances get weirder and weirder.

[RobertHofl1]

Why is Duolingo giving us proper names of companies to translate?

[RobinWilli760270]

This is an awful translation - if word for word, it would be "Thing and Sons company, I'm listening to you" If a reasonable coloquial translation, it would be "Truc and Fils, can I help you" Duo's translation just turns it into a guessing game!

[kih37q4]

Proper names, such as company names, are not usually translated. "Truc and Fils company" or "Truc and Son" should be the translation.

[MandyB11]

Did you report this? What you say makes sense.

[Cjcoi8IX]

je vous écoute is an idiomatic expression equivalent to 'how can I help you?' The literal translation sounds like the speaker is waiting for an explanation of bad behaviour

[deactivated user]

Agreed, if Duo wants a literal translation, it should be I'm listening to you.

[.Augusto]

It is an idiomatic expression.

[MandyB11]

Sounds like they ran out of surnames after Fabre & Dumas!

[Manash7777]

What a weird Company name .

[NidaSpaldi]

It's hard to guess a company's name.

[Alex433433]

Aside: I'm told that "Monsieur Truc" translates roughly to "Mr So-and-so"

[RaymondBeu]

How are we supposed to guess which of two identical sounding French words is "correct"? Truc or Trucs?

[IngridvonE]

Why not Trucs et Fils?

[RaymondBeu]

I have the same complaint.

[R3m3X1]

In the UK at least, we would never say 'Thing and Son COMPANY'. It would be 'Thing & Son And Company' or 'Thing & Son Limited'. Thanks.

[Martyn413385]

True, but see what kih37q4 wrote a year ago. Proper names wouldn't usually be translated, eg Carrefour SA = Crossroads SA, but if you said that everyone would think you were bonkers :-)

[hippietrail]

Thing and Son Enterprises seems like it could be both more literal and more natural, unless of course there's a false friend.

[Martyn413385]

There is perhaps a false friend here. The mainstream translation of the French "entreprise" is "company" or "business". "Enterprise" would also be OK when talking about a general business, but I don't know if it is accepted:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/entreprise

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french/enterprise

However it would not be usual to translate the individual words of the formal/proper name of a registered business, except possibly where the original name does not use the Latin alphabet, but even then it may be transcribed phonetically.

Unfortunately in Duo's example it's not completely clear whether "entreprise Truc et Fils" is intended to be the formal company name where "entreprise" is part of the name or whether it is a less formal way of saying "this is a company called "Truc et Fils".

[hippietrail]

All very good points!

[4MaryAnn7]

Once again, I am having difficulty with this character's accent.

[Mister_Matthew]

I repeat - I will continue to learn French despite Duo's attempts to put me off!

[johnuw93]

Good grief. I had it right, then changed it because I figured we should not translate a proper name, as others have said. I guess Duo was in a playful mood.

[Martyn413385]

Rather than pushing literal translations it might be better simply to learn how to answer the phone in different contexts in a Francophone country. What I mean is, this is how to answer a business phone call, and say this is how to answer a call from your favourite auntie!