"Quand la star est apparue, tout le monde s'est tu."
Translation:When the star appeared, everyone got quiet.
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Just a personal comment, when I was learning English, a long time ago, I was taught to never say "shut up" to anyone. It was considered very rude.
I used, "... everyone became quiet." Accepted.
En fait, I am not a great fan of "got" in phrases like this. I mean, where do you "get quiet" from? Is it available on the Internet?
You can use 'se taire' and 'shut up' to someone you know very well like a sibling but you have to be careful as it isn't polite and can cause offence.
I now wonder what other phrases Duolingo is going to include which, if said to the wrong person like a gendarme, could land you with either a large fine or a night in the cells.
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Again, 'shut up' is rude only when it is used as a command. Otherwise it's just a synonym for 'be silent'. For example, the headline 'Who won't shut up in meetings?' in the Washington Post on February 18. Or the one for the Scientific American article of March 1: 'People Literally Don’t Know When to Shut Up—or Keep Talking—Science Confirms'.
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Is "tout le monde s'est tu" a positive expression (with respect), or negative (with neglectance or distain)?
Shut up doesn't sound good....i think it should be "Everyone stopped talking.........or everyone was silent.
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The problem is not the English translation -- it's the French verb. Se taire means "shut up," and it's as rude (or even ruder) in French as it is in English.
But at least I finally see Duolingo teaching (correctly) that se taire means "shut up." In every other lesson where I've encountered this verb, Duo has been teaching that it simply means "quiet down" or "be quiet."
Someone learning French on Duolingo could easily get themselves in trouble in France by using se taire to ask someone to be quiet. It's not a polite thing to say. If I said it to a stranger, I'd expect to get punched in the face.
I can't understand why Duolingo would teach se taire as anything other than what it is, which is impolite at best, and potentially "fighting words" at worst.
I hope this is helpful. Bonne chance!
According to LaRousse: When looking up "to quiet down" in English, the French translation given is: "Se calmer"; However, under "Se taire" the English translation given is: "To be silent" or "To be quiet". So, I think the better translation for this sentence, given that "shut up" can be offensive would be "everyone quieted down"; or : "everyone was silent".
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Which is just as bad... because it's not even "good English" - it might be said by an illiterate red-neck with poor vocabulary... but any other native English speaker would recognise it as a sh*t translation
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Yes agreed. Shut up is rude in a childish way, and would not be used by an educated adult.
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"Shut up" is rude only when used in the imperative. As Collins puts it, "If you shut up, you stop talking. If you say `shut up' to someone, you are rudely telling them to stop talking." And pace ScottHuch, it seems the same distinction applies in French.
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From the discussion herein, it appears that a prudent French speaker would not say it this way. Duo, apparently, is not prudent.
"Quand l'étoile est apparue, tout le monde est devenu silencieux." est possible mais, je pense que "s'est tu" est plus commun et n'est pas impoli.
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"When the star appeared, everyone fell silent" was rejected. According to Collins, it should be accepted (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/french-english/se-taire). Reported.
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Is the star in this sentence a celebrity? Otherwise, when do we use Etoile, and when do we use star?
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Excellent question. According to Collins, 'star' in the sense of 'celebrity' is 'star' or 'vedette', not 'étoile'. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french/star
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Why is the auxiliary verb être and not avoir for apparaître? Is this a passive construction, so the verb has a sense of "to be shown"?
Sometimes apparaitre can be conjugated with avoir and sometimes with etre. I can't figure it out. Elle est apparue seems to be more common than elle a apparu.
I found this answer on the Internet which seems to make sense: In the sense of 'to appear' as in an event you can actually use both. You will hear "Le soleil est finalement apparu cet après-midi." or "Le soleil a finalement apparu... "The sun finally made an appearance this afternoon.)
The difference being emphasis on the action (using 'avoir') or the result (using 'être').
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To amplify on what johndelaroo says: "In the case of apparaître, to a first approximation, you can consider that the auxiliary is always être. There can be a distinction between the action of appearing (something became visible in the past → avoir) and the state of appearing (something looked a certain way in the past → être) but the use of avoir is disappearing in late 20th-early 21st century French." From https://french.stackexchange.com/questions/25554/full-list-of-verbs-conjugated-with-être-and-avoir
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Thanks due to you both, johndelaroo and RichardHoma, maybe some conjugation tables have not yet caught up with the usage?
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There's a distinct difference in pronunciation between tu and tout in French. It's difficult to explain in writing, but here goes.
For an English speaker, tout would sound a lot like our word "too" only a little breathier.
For tu, the French "u" is best approximated by an English-speaker by rounding your lips as if trying to say "oo" but voicing an "ee" sound, instead. So tu would sound like "oo(ee)." (I'm sorry, but -- as I said -- it's difficult to explain in writing.)
There are resources online where you can hear these two French sounds pronounced. With practice, it will become second nature when you speak French. My French teacher used to drill us on the vowels -- the entire class would say over and over: "Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo," and then, "Oo(ee), oo(ee), oo(ee), oo(ee), oo(ee)."
I hope this is helpful. Bonne chance!
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surely it should translate as "went quiet" as in English it is really rude to say "shut up"!
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The hints say "got quiet" and as I was unfamiliar with Se taire I put that and it was marked wrong! If it means Shut up why does Duo's hints not say this? Also as a native English speaker I would never use Shut up in this sentence.
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I received a message from Duo yesterday saying that the translation above is now accepted, so I assume yours would be also, since it is essentially the same.
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You may use got in America but we do not use it in England. Became quiet would be a better English