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- Topic: French >
- "Ils lisent le journal."
78 Comments
In the present tense, the -ent is silent for ils/elles. There is a subtle difference though.
147
Given that Ils also sounds like Il, or it does here, how then are you supposed to tell the difference between "Il lis" and "Ils lisent"?
here is the difference :
- singular : IL LI (il lit)
- plural : IL LIZ (ils lisent)
- 147
Thank you. I think I'll have to start using headphones to pick up on those subtle differences that I can't easily detect through my speakers.
Is the plural of the verb always longer?
like in:
"le" vs "les",
"il lit" vs "ils liz(lisent)"
and how do you make those dots in the row(sitesurf)?
Try this one: http://fr.forvo.com/word/ils_lisent_le_journal/ (but I exaggerated the pronounciation, the real pronounciation si rather like the audio than this one)
if she said "il lis le journal" the s would be silent in "lis"...so it would sound like "lee"
il lis is not correct: il lit - but it still sounds "lee"
There is never an -s in 3rd person singular.
In French, you use "the" for the newspaper you read everyday by example. Tous les jours, je lis le journal = Everyday, I read the newspaper. If you go to a bookstore, and there's several newspaper, "tu lis un journal" = you read a newpaper.
Is there a tip to distinguish the pronountiation between "IL" and "ILS", and between "LIT" and "LISENT"? It is hard to appreciate the difference, unless context lets me set it
il and ils are pronounced the same.
but "lit" is [LI] and "lisent" is [LIZ], that's enough to differentiate singular from plural and vice-versa, I think.
ils is a plural pronoun replacing masculine plural nouns and elles is a plural pronoun replacing feminine plural nouns.
j'aime les pommes, elles sont bonnes
j'aime les arbres, ils sont beaux
As soon as there is even one single man in a group of women, you say "ils".
There are two correct translations for this text: 1. Present: They read the newspaper. 2. Present Continuous: They are reading the newspaper.
Why are they both correct? Does French not recognize the present continuous?
I might have missed something basic, but I'm wondering why this can't also translate as "he reads the newspaper"?
"lu" is the past participle of verb "lire", not an article.
articles are: le journal (masculine); la pomme (feminine); les enfants (masculine or feminine, plural)
What is the difference between ils and elles? They both translate into "they". I know ils is masculine and elles is feminine, but what if you're talking about a group (they) with both men and women?
all men = ils
all women = elles
a mix of men and women = ils (= masculine by default)
As usual you make no allow for the fact the spoken word is the same in singular form and plural! You must accept both anwsers as correct!
A phonetic translation of the spoken sentence would be helpful for a lot of these... maybe a little flip card revealing the IPA transliteration near the speaker icon.
its hard to know if you should write lets say garcons or garcon when they speak it to you and you guess the word.
Even if "garçons" and "garçon" are pronounced the same, determiners and verb will be different
what is the defference between pronunciation "le journal" & " les journals"?
Nouns ending in -al in singular have an irregular plural in -aux:
- un journal - des journaux
- un animal - des animaux
- un cheval - des chevaux
- un capital - des capitaux
(A few exceptions: carnaval(s), festival(s), bal(s))
"ils" can represent any plural and masculine human beings.
but "ils" translates to "they" as a personal pronoun.
Ils is "they', in a masculine context meaning a group of boys or men. What I just learnt though is even if there is one girl/woman in the group (they/Ils) is still reffered to as Ils. Because what is masculine overrides.
This sentence is usually formed as "They read the newspaper" another form is "They're reading the newspaper" hope this helps for u guys
"un lit" is a bed, yes.
But you cannot confuse a noun and a conjugated verb as part of a sentence.
The conjugation:
je lis, tu lis, il/elle/on lit, nous lisons, vous lisez, ils/elles lisent
Each grammatical person has its own conjugation and lisson is not a French word.
- je lis, tu lis, il/elle/on lit, nous lisons, vous lisez, ils/elles lisent
This is not right because "does" is not the conjugation for "they" but for "he/she/it".
- "Do they read the newspaper" is correct.
Anyone know why journal and newspaper are acceptable in the answer for this here question? Journal does not mean newspaper in english.. But there are journalist journaling in newspapers.. Might i have just answered my own question?
"They are reading the newspaper" is accepted, as well as "they read the newspaper".
How can we differentiate between using lis and lisent. I mean how to know which to use when and with what? What are the rules regarding this?
Please scroll up to the 4th post on this thread, dated 5 years ago.
In addition, this is the conjugation of the verb "lire" in present:
je lis, tu lis, il/elle/on lit, nous lisons, vous lisez, ils/elles lisent.
