"Vous nous envoyiez des livres sur les monstres."
Translation:You used to send us books on monsters.
17 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The given translation says 'books on monsters', shouldn't this be 'books about monsters'? Seems more natural to me
121
I wrote "books about monsters" and it was accepted. I also wonder if "books on monsters" is something that people say
On and about are both in common use and are basically interchangeable. Perhaps on feels a bit more appropriate for a detailed in-depth treatment of a subject: "His essay was about fishing." "Her dissertation was on fishing practices in pre-Columbian Hispaniola." But switch the prepositions and they still sound ok to me.
I had a mental image of monsters parading into the room carrying books on their backs...
Can a native French speaker hear a difference between vous nous envoyez and vous nous envoyiez?
Sitesurf wrote that the extra i (ee) was subtle. My French teacher (Native of Normandy) said it's so subtle as to be basically imperceptible when speaking rapidly.
- 1328
This is probably intentional since there is also essayer and asseoir in this section.
And thanks for the info about how audible these sounds are. I had asked the same question on a different lesson.
- 1519
I put You sent us books on monsters. it then said;
You have a typo.
Youd send us books on monsters.
- 2375
As "les" (not "des") is used, shouldn't the translation be, "You used to send us books on/about the monsters"?
No. In this case les monstres means monsters in general, as a category. It's like J'adore les framboises means "I love raspberries" not "the raspberries."
"Vous nous envoyez des livres sur les monstres" was accepted (listening exercise)
Books "on" a specific medium, yes, is in common usage in Canada, as in "books on tape" or "books on film"; books "about" a specific topic, such as indigenous truth and reconciliation or women's soccer (yes, we won Olympic Gold!), is the preposition more commonly used. A.
