"La nouvelle factrice est un peu effrayante."
Translation:The new mail carrier is a little scary.
64 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Yes - definitely not a "mail carrier" - at the very least a femail carrier (sorry - had to be done!) ;-)
Postal worker is a bit general. That includes everyone working in the warehouses, bulk transportation, or management. This sentence is referring to the one who delivers the mail to you, who yes are postal workers but there surely is a more specific term.
Sorry about the redundant post. Yours hadn't come up on my screen yet.
An American postal worker actually works in the post office itself and is not a mail carrier.
Postal workers are everyone employed by the postal service in all job functions. All mail carriers are postal workers. Not all postal workers are mail carriers.
2101
Hi Barbara. We just say 'postie'. Perhaps we are just lazy or don't want to risk assuming the wrong gender. :-)
- 1138
In the uk a postmistress would be a lady who runs a small rural sub post office and would not deliver mail herself
- 747
If a 'facteur' is a mail man then factrice is 'mail lady' Even Americans don't say mail carrier. You have to get with it guys!
Surely post woman or post lady? We don't have mail carriers in English??
Maybe you meant "in England." We do have mail carriers (in English) in the US and in Canada. I expect post lady is accepted as a correct answer. If it is not, use the Report feature to suggest it. Hundreds of identical comments accomplish nothing. Reports will get valid translations added to the list.
- 673
What on earth is a "mail carrier"? Is it North American as it certainly isn't British? It's disappointing when Duo doesn't have native speakers checking these big courses.
- 1092
Has nobody else noticed that "un peu" is masculine and "effrayante" is feminine?
I assume that this is the correct agreement (since "un peu" is acting as an adverb and not as a noun) and that this is not an error?
- 929
You assumed correctly, but I understand what you mean. It IS strange when you think that an article and a masculine noun combine to become an adverb modifying a feminine adjective.
- 1092
Exactly, but did you figure out why the adjective didn't modify the noun to which it is (or at least appears to be) attached?
- 2101
I'm not that analytically inclined, just thought it was obvious. However I would be grateful, since you have done the thinking, to hear your explanation.
The new postman is a little scary - a much better answer from a Brit's point of view
- 918
Agreed.
The French uses the feminine version of the term, factrice instead of facteur, but we definitely have female "postmen" here in the UK...
I can see where they're coming from in refusing it, but...
I keep forgetting I have to use American English - it's a toil of a pleasure today and that's not mentioning the French!!
- 2101
Hi Jane. I had to look that expression up: 'Don't make a toil of a pleasure'. Thanks. I like it.
Does it mean that she's easily scared by scary stuff, or that she scares people?
I think if she were easily scared, they would need the French equivalent of "frightened" not scary.
I've tried postal worker and post lady, which appear to be unacceptable; no wonder la factrice is a little bit scary, she has to be to survive all these titles!
Very poor translation of post lady. Get with English too please Duo, not just Americanisms
- 847
I vote for universal acceptance of the gender neutral, politically correct, good old Aussie term Postie. All in favour?
- 929
In North America, the trend is to rid vocabulary of terms revealing gender since the gender of a person is largely unimportant to performing most roles. Therefore, mailman is considered a sexist term and here, in Canada, has been officially replaced by mail carrier; postal workers are those who work in post offices, mail transport and sorting facilities. We used to use actor and actress but actress has faded away and males and females now are all actors. Airline stewards and stewardesses, familiarly known as space waitresses or trolley dollies, are now the sexless flight attendants and waiters and waitresses are now servers. But the French have seen fit to march in the opposite direction by taking a single term applied to both men and women equally and making a masculine and feminine form seemingly to appear more inclusive. Interesting!
- 2101
Hi Gord. 'Mail carrier' sounds like a vehicle to me, not a person, but I understand that you use that term. I must ask my Canadian friend here in Australia about that. She has lived here for 30 years, but regularly (pre covid) goes back to Canada to visit her family and to polish up her Canadian! We use the genderless term 'posties'. We are with you with actors and flight attendants but I would never use the word 'servers' for waiters. It sounds like some sort of robot, like a computer server. We just use 'waiter' in the same way as 'actor'.
- 929
It does take some time to become used to new terms when you have been using the old ones for well over half a century. I'm now used to 'mail carrier' although I still find 'mailman' escaping my lips from time to time. You can Google 'mail carrier Canada' to see the government's Canada Post website listing jobs available and salaries for 'mail carriers.' Postie is a good term. It even has a feeling of endearment to it.
- 929
Where the new term has been adopted to satisfy political correctness, as is the case here in Canada, mail carrier can refer to a postman, mailman or mail lady. When I was young, I never saw a female delivering mail; they always worked indoors in a post office or sorting plant. I gather this was similar in Britain. My British friends tell me a postman delivers the mail but a postmistress receives it. Thankfully, attitudes have changed over the decades.
- 85
Lacking in political correctness as it is, la factrice is nevertheless not gender-neutral! Post woman is correct! It is differentiated from facteur which is masculine. Post woman should not have been marked incorrect.
