29 Comments
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I thought tre was only used for adjectives so I looked it up in vortaro.net...turns out you're right, you can say "Mi tre ŝatas kafon".
I also looked at multe to see if I could learn clearly the difference between the two...but I couldn't, vortaro is still not super accessible at my level of esperanto.
What I brought home is that you can use multe to indicate quantity, duration (of an action or a thing); "Mi ne dormis multe hieraŭ". And tre in a more general way indicates superlatives, intensity. Also, you can say "tre multe" :D
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This diferent is right, the verb "ŝati" the diferent between "multe" and "tre", but with "kuri" to run it becomes clear.
"Li multe kuri." He runs a lot, like everyday or for a long time, runs many times.
"Li tre kuri." He runs a lot, like his is fast, runs intensive.
With "ŝati" this diferences becomes the same, a big amount of likeness or a strong likeness is the same thing.
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I cannot give you a response based on grammar, but the same thing happens in Spanish. "Me gusta mucho el café" as opposed to "Me gusta muy el café." It seems like "to like" is a bit of a quantity, of which you can have an amount.
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There are some good answers already posted. I would explain it as follows.
Tre has to do with intensity and multe has to do with quantity. Whether you use tre or multe is a question of semantics and not grammar. In many cases - such as this one - you can use either.
- My appreciation of coffee is intense.
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My appreciation of coffee is gigantic.
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I really like coffee.
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I like coffee a lot.
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Mi tre ŝatas kafon.
- Mi multe ŝatas kafon.
There are some words where you must use one or the other (for semantic reasons.)
- Mi estas tre laca - I am really tired. (Not "I am tired in a large amount")
- Mi multe promenis - I walked a lot (Not "I very walked.")
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I can't really tell you why or if there's a rule about it, but as a native speaker, it definitely doesn't sound right.
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I'm not a native english speaker, but "like a lot of coffee" sounds that there is much of coffee, which the french people like. But in this case, the "a lot" refers to the "like", not to the coffee itself.
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Yes that is incorrect English. We say "a lot OF coffee". And yes, NebelLeben is correct, in this sentence it is that they LIKE coffee a lot, not like a lot of coffee.
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Yes, try one of these - "French people like coffee a lot" or "French people like a lot of coffee". I can't explain except with examples. Different emphasis and slightly different meaning however.
Sounds very strange. My ears want to hear "like a lot of coffee" which isn't the same idea. The word "like" likes to be followed closely by the thing that is liked.
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Adverbs in Esperanto generally come before the word they modify.
- I really like coffee. I very much like coffee.
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I put "Frenchmen love coffee" but was marked wrong. Not word for word but definitely the gist of the sentence.
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Not the same idea, though: "Many French people" (Multaj francoj...) doesn't include the whole population, and their feelings towards coffee aren't amplified. This sentence says that French people as a whole like coffee a lot (stronger than just liking).
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So would "French people like coffee a lot" translate as "Francoj sxatas kafon multe"?
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"Frenchmen very much like coffee" is correct.
What about "Frenchmen much like coffee" ? It seems to be not good English.
You're right, I'm a native speaker, and that is strangely inconsistent, but true. However, it is a bit less awkward to say "Frenchmen like coffee much" and not awkward at all to say "Frenchmen like coffee very much"
I do not think this is right. Hiw does 'a lot' now mean 'really' as well? I thought that was 'tre'. Why doesn't this mean either "like coffee a lot" or "like a lot of coffee". ????
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Why is the default "French people…" when "Frenchmen" is the word for the "French people"?
Would "The French like coffee a lot" be correct? Or is that yet another meaning?
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It gave me the option to use love for "French people love coffee", but ah, I was tricked
