"I've seen him lately, we even had dinner together."
Translation:Je l'ai vu dernièrement, on a même dîné ensemble.
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I thought it was right to put the adverb after the first verb (the auxiliary verb). But "Je l'ai dernièrement vu" is rejected, and the Google Translate offers the same option as Duolingo's. What, then, did I get wrong about that rule?
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It's the same in English, "lately" has to go at the end of the clause, whereas "recently" can modify the verb. I don't currently understand why.
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They're interchangeable in an example like this (though I don't know if DL accepts the nous version).
I'm very stupid, I realise - but for the last part of this I put: "nous avons eu même le dîner ensemble". Wrong I know, but why? Elaine
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- To have dinner together doesn't translate into avoir un/le dîner ensemble in french, it's just a direct word for word translation that doesn't work.
- You misplaced même that should be between the auxiliary (être or avoir) and the past participle (eu).
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It's just that you thought about it in English. The construction "to have" + a meal is pretty much exclusive to English.
Easy way to remember it: in French we do not "have" a meal, in any case, we "take" it, especially breakfast and lunch (e.g. "Je prends mon petit déjeuner").
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But I doubt that *"prendre le dîner" is accepted either.
The French don't "have dinner", ils dînent.
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Given that lately we've been learning the word "dernierement" what is the difference between it and recemment?
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If you mean on avait même diné ensemble, that's the plus-que-parfait rather than the parfait: "we had even dined together".
Thank you for your comment! First, I have to say that I wanted to say "auxiliary", not "infinitive", sorry! Secondly, at my very modest stage I am just trying to follow the rules, in most cases without feeling how these rules really correspond to the meaning and how much flexibility they allow. So what you say sounds plausible, but, following in Duolingo's footsteps, I haven't yet arrived at the point where I could say whether I agree with what you said or not...
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Salut Sergey! I was answering Rosalind's question rather than yours.
But, as for the placement of dernièrement, I have read here that we put longer adverbs at the end of the phrase. I imagine that's what DL didn't like!
Per ardua ad astra !
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What governs the use of "on a" dine versus "nous avons?" Please excuse the lack of accents, I don't have them on my computer.
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In France, the on form is the norm in conversational French.
With DL, on and nous are usually accepted as alternatives (with the correct form of the verb).