"Surtout, il ne faut pas débrancher l'ordinateur."
Translation:Above all, you must not unplug the computer.
14 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I translate "surtout" as "especially," and it is flagged as an error. The evaluation accepts only "above all" for "surtout;" but if you check the dictionary by hovering over "surtout," it gives both "above all" and "especially" as valid meanings.
These recent additions to Duolingo French seem to be very picky in their acceptable translations.
1473
Especially doesn't really work as a translation of "surtout", except in expressions like "surtout quand" or "surtout pas".
It certainly doesn't work at the beginning of this sentence.
------- i'm guessing we haven't reported our answers enough . . .
Big 8 jul 20
above all, do not unplug the computer
why is it necessary to add "you". It is certainly implied and seems unnecessary
- 1473
That would be "Surtout, ne débranchez pas l'ordinateur.". But the French sentence is a Statement, not a Command.
"You" or "one is implied and understood. If you said to someone "do not unplug the computer" it is understood and not necessary to say "you, do not unplug the computer."
I think this sentence means ... 'It is not necessary to unplug your computer'. That is not the same as 'You must not'.
I agree. The original strikes me more as "it is not necessary to unplug the computer" rather than "you must not unplug the computer." If I were going to say "you must not unplug the computer," I would say "il faut ne pas debrancher l'ordinateur". I found a number of instances in these new lessons where the construction "il ne faut pas" was translated as "you must not," but to me it means "it is not necessary," thus optional, rather than prohibited. Have I been speaking this incorrectly since the waning days of the Johnson Administration (Lyndon, not Andrew)?
- 1824
No, it means "It is necessary to not unplug the computer" which is the same as "you must not".
- 57
That is an easy mistake to make, but no. "Il ne faut pas faire ça" expresses (roughly) "you must not do that".
To express "you don't have to do that" (impersonal "you"), the french would say something like "on n'est pas obligé de faire ça" or "on n'a pas à faire ça". or, in a more specific context "on n'a pas besoin de faire ça". Alternatively, you could say "Il n'est pas nécessaire (de+infinitif)/(que+subjet+subjonctif)..." at the beginning of a sentence.
This link has a nice discussion of it: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/fr-il-ne-faut-pas-il-faut-ne-pas-infinitif.35835/
Duo is right here. things don't always translate nicely. Falloir, the verb from which "il faut" is derived, is quite hard to translate because we don't have a verb like it in English. It's an impersonal verb like "to rain", except it expresses obligation. Think about it: we say "it's raining". What's raining? We can't really identify what "it" is, because "to rain" is an impersonal verb.