- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Elle est sympa."
59 Comments
Gentil is more for when someone gives you something or does something nice for you and you want to tell them how nice/gracious/kind they are, i.e. "that was nice of you." Sympa is more of a general description of a person, i.e. "she is nice/friendly"
I'm not French so I don't know, but I think they are synonyms like "nice" and "kind." They are very close in meaning.
In my french classes, it was like the first adjective we learned, so I'd suppose it is rather common. That's in Switzerland, but we're learning parisian french
288
Very much so. It can mean many things, I mostly hear it for "cute", and less-so "sexy". It did not accept "cute" as a translation however.
Sympa is a "faux amis" (false friends) of sympathetic -- they sound like they are the the same word in different languages, but they are actually different. Sympa does not mean sympathetic.
Sympa is actually a shortening of sympathique, so not really a "faux amis". Its meaning may have received a wider range of uses later, as people don't necessarily consider the origin of the word. But the words are very much related
Sympathetic can me "pleasant or agreeable" which is what I would think when I hear someone is "nice".
Even in English, as an American, I can say that you can refer to someone (or something) as both "cool" and/or "nice", with the same rough meaning (although different nuances).
Both google translate and reverso indicate "friendly"as a secondary definition.
- 362
Duolingo pronounces "sympa" = sam-pah, but I've heard it pronounced "sim-pah" as well.
Which pronunciation is correct?
Sim-pah is incorrect. There is a nasal sound in the word sympa. It should be pronounced san-pah, where sym is sa-a-an. M isn't pronounced.
I've never heard this word, but it could be because I am from Quebec. Is this a word that is used in france?
- 1903
The word sympa is a "diminutif" for sympathique (aimable ....) and has been widely used in France for decades.
Doesn't sympa mean sympathetic? I learned it in my Grade 5 French class, and my teacher always used "sympa" when it was sympathetic.
Why did they introduce this word for learning French??? First they had to introduce ''sympathique''.
French has words that sound like the English words so it makes it so much easier. But still francais is so hard.
- 610
I find that the vocabulary is pretty easy, the irregular verbs are harder, and the prepositions will drive one to drink! The nuances of common usage and meaning are difficult on any language, I think.
"Sympa" is an informal adjective, and it translates to "friendly/nice" when referring to a person, whereas "pleasant" is a possible translation for other cases. Il n'est vraiment pas sympa. (he is not nice, at all) Source: Larousse Dictionnaires
I put "she is pleasant" and it marked it as incorrect even though "pleasant" is an option in the drop down menu
Yes, this also happened to me. It's frustratingly misleading, and I wrote a post elsewhere about the relevance of drop-down hints if they're not appropriate to the immediate question, as the student is focused on the question at hand, and if the hint means something else...why put it?!
Isn't this short for sympathique? I often think of sympa as slang for that reason.
I actually wrote "elle est sympa" and took it wrong. Just for your information
You can say the gender pronoun + a form of etre when the sentence contains an adjective (and no nouns).
Elle est sympa.
But it becomes c'est when you add a noun in there.
C'est une sympa femme.
These articles explain it better than me: http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/cest-versus-il-elle-est http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/fl/Learn-the-French-Expressions-Cest-vs-Il-est.htm
This may just be my hearing, but the 'ym' in 'sympa' isn't nasal is it?
Again, you've marked me as wrong when I'm right! Very dispiriting..
WOW. I pronounce it perfectly every single time and have gotten it wrong 12 times in a row now. This is a very easy sentence to pronounce. WTF?!!!!!!
