"Je suis un enfant."
Translation:I am a child.
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Could "Je suis un enfant" also translate to 'I am a kid,' since it's the same thing as a child?
Since this course is designed for English speakers who in theory are perfectly well apprised of the differences between "kid" and "child" I don't really understand this argument.
"kid" is much more commonly used relative to "child" than either "gamin" or "gosse" (or both together) is used relative to "enfant": kid vs. child enfant vs. gamin/gosse, which means that the vast majority of the time that one wanted to translate "kid" the natural French choice would be "enfant." Hence, to not accept it as a translation the other way is to distort the language (and also to be at variance with every other course from English I've seen on Duolingo, to the best of my recollection). This one-to-one correspondence idea I fear serves to work against the huge bulk of work the contributors undoubtedly put in to get people to realize that translating word by word is not the way to go.
See Remy's response to u83rmensch elsewhere in this thread.
But as he says here, "enfant" is quite preponderantly masculine: http://bit.ly/2szkwNg.
Given the multiple choice question, you have the first part of the sentence, called the "stem", followed by the choices. The stem ends with "un" which is a masculine article. It can only be followed by a masculine noun. So "fille" and "femme" don't work (they are feminine nouns). The only correct answer is "enfant" (child).
The term "suspension of disbelief" is useful in learning situations to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable for the sake of the experience, enjoyment of it, or in this case, for learning purpose. I.e., if you are going to learn French on Duolingo, you will need to open up to the possibility of saying something for the purpose of learning, not because it is a true statement for you.
You're on Level 1. The "trick" is to apply yourself daily, try to understand why things are either "right" or "wrong". Use other resources as necessary, especially a FR/EN dictionary. French on Duolingo is heavily slanted toward grammar. So if you're good at English grammar, you stand a better chance at understanding French grammar as long as you remember that English rules don't apply to French and French rules don't apply to English. Start simply:
- Bonjour = hello
- Comment ça va ? = How are you (How's it going?)
- Merci beaucoup = thank you very much
- Continue until you finish the course
- Repeat
Just as "child" and "kid" are different in English, the French use "enfant" and either "gamine" or "gosse" in French. "Kid" is by its nature an informal term and while it is often used interchangeably, it is not always advisable to do so. To help you remember that, Duolingo will always accept "child" for "enfant".
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Why isn't "I am a kid" accepted? Other languages have accepted "kid" instead of "child"...