"Il avait un secret, et il ne me le disait pas."
Translation:He had a secret, and he didn't tell me it.
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1422
Agreed. "He didn't tell it to me." sounds good.
Previously, somewhere else in the course, there was some similar kind of unnatural English translation. I reported it. I guess, the course creators are good with French but bad in their English translations.
Reported (again) via flag Nov 2020: English needs "He didn't tell it to me."
For repeated actions & habits in the past 'would' + base verb has a very similar meaning to 'used to'.
So this time around, I put: "he wouldn't tell it to me" = accepted Mar 2021.
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It's most common in the Midlands, but it's definitely a real thing that people say.
Myself, working within restrictions of available words in wordbank, I used, "..tell it me." Rejected. Reported.
Well, "...tell it me." would be incorrect English. "...tell me it." is correct, though to some people, it sounds awkward.
it is wrong (opinion) You would want to add either about or of to rescue that sentence. i.e. "He didn't tell me about it." "He didn't tell me of it." My preference would be "about"
"He didn't tell me it" isn't wrong, in the sense that it's a valid English sentence. But "He didn't tell it to me" sounds much better.
"He didn't tell me that" uses the same structure and is common, so it's not the syntax or grammar per se that is wrong, but they should try to use what sounds more natural.
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Not a good translation. I would suggest: He had a secret and he didn't tell it to me.'
- 2482
I believe that 'and he didn't tell me' is accepted. It shouldn't be because that means: He didn't tell me that he had a secret. The French sentence means that he didn't tell me the secret. Different.
Talking about the French, for a change... (!)
... I find the string of French mini-words quite intriguing. "et il ne me le." You could almost treat it as one:- "et-il-ne-me-le.."
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Since this is imperfect, I would have thought the translation should be, either:
He had a secret and he would not tell me, or He had a secret and he would not tell it to me
There is a standard order for the pronouns. Me (te, se, nous, vous) come before le and la which come before lui and leur, regardless of whether they are objective or dative. Order is different when they come after commands though.
"He had a secret, but he wasn't telling me it" - rejected, but surely "il disait...." is a continuous action in the past? Otherwise it would be "il n'a me le raconté pas". Reported.
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Sometimes "me" goes before "le", sometimes "le" goes before a "lui", or leur. Could someone talk about how to use their order correctly? For example "il ne me le disait pas" me goes before le
"il faut le lui rendre" "avant de le leur proposer" Here "le" goes before "lui" and "leur"
Thanks so much.
The order of French pronouns is:-.
1. Me / te / se / nous / vous.
2. Le / la / les.
3. Lui / leur.
4. Y.
5. En.
Hope this helps.
The English is not grammatically correct. It should be "He had a secret, and he didn't tell me ABOUT it." or "...he didn't tell it to me."
Remember that the t in et is not pronounced, even though it's followed by a vowel. But if you listen carefully you can hear the change of vowel sound as she says the two words.
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You give the contraction and then you tell people it is a typo? You guys sure have a lot of problems! Hahahahaha!
Anyone else having trouble hearing Oscar say the "et"? I suppose that's how a lot of people would often say it, merging the two short words together, "et il" sounding a lot like "il", but how would you know it was there without seeing it written?
The t in et is not sounded which makes it difficult. But you can listen for the change of vowel sound between E as in egg and the I of il (EE as in eel). It is there, but it sometimes takes some practice and perseverance to hear it.