"C'est un moyen efficace."
Translation:It is an efficient way.
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2987
"Efficacious" and "efficacy" are most likely found in medical/scientific journals when speaking of drugs. Efficient and effective aren't quite what the writers mean sometimes. "Efficient" refers to the time frame (how fast a drug will take to work) and "effective" simply refers to whether or not it works. "Efficacious" is more about the drug working as expected. I first came across it working in marketing research, and then again as a law clerk doing intellectual property law in, for the most part, the pharmaceutical industry.
Yes, it's not a common word and probably most people won't need to use the words "efficacy" or "efficacious", but it's an excellent word that succinctly describes something more specific than "effective" or "efficient". If we're here to learn new languages, I don't see that it should be troublesome to learn new words in our own language. ;-)
I think helenvee's point (with which I agree) is not that efficacious is wrong, but that it is not, by far, the most common contextual translation for the word "efficace." Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, "efficace" will be translated in context as "efficient," so why is Duo using the one percent answer, rather than the ninety-nine percent answer?
Yes, the "efficacy" of a drug, for example. "Efficacious" is a word that I've either heard or read a number of times in my life. As your comment implies, petedarwin, it is the kind of word that is usually reserved for sophisticated speech or writing -- a journal article, a university lecture, a scientific study, and such. Whether or not it belongs in a Duolingo exercise, I guess is debatable. But it is a perfectly good English word, and still very much in use.
2987
I'm confused that you've heard of "efficacy" and not its associated adjective "efficacious" (e.g., "the drug is efficacious")...
It is not my rule... take look at this:
http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-f.htm
609
Can anyone offer any guidance on the different uses of the words "moyen", "facon" and "maniére"? They all seem to mean "way", "style" or "manner".
When would you use each?
In this sentence, all 3 can work, since we don't know what exactly the "way" is referring to.
Generally speaking, "une façon" and "une manière" are pretty much interchangeable, referring to non-concrete things. "I'll do it my way" = "je vais le faire à ma façon/manière".
"un moyen" is more concrete: un moyen de transport, un moyen de paiement, un moyen de communication, je n'ai pas les moyens (I can't afford it)...
I played the recording over and over and "efficase" always sounded like "efiDicase," which of course, is not a word. Bye-bye heart. Can someone recommend a playback setting for me? This is the umpteenth time I have been unable to discern what the recordings are saying. And yes, my ears are clean and working. Thanks.
No, "means" has to have the "s" at the end in order to mean "method." :-) Without the "s," the infinitive "to mean" represents a definition, it can be used as an adjective meaning "nasty" or "vicious," or in mathematics, it is another word for "average." Only "means" with an "s" had the definition of method or route.
What I first read when I hover on "moyen" is: way, means, method
And in reverse: way = moyen, manière, façon
Just don't scroll down the hint list, for you get further and further away from the expected translation.
Pick the one that appears first for it is probably the one used in the Best translation.
58
i'm surprised by the liason between 'moyeN' and 'efficace'. I thought that liasons were not allowed with nouns in singular...
1469
I heard ''C'est en moyenne efficace'', as in ''It is efficient on average''. Is that correct French? Or would it sound different?