46 Comments
What is the difference between "es" and "est" again? I always get these two mixed up.
They're pronounced the same, so you won't be able to tell the difference from how they sound--you have to go based on the the subject pronoun that comes before it. "es" is the second person singular form (you are), "est" is third person singular form (he is). So you would say "tu es" or "il est".
actually you can hear a z sound after es when it is. joined with un in this sentence if it were est you wouldn't hear it
es= are (you are a black lion)
est =is (you is a black lion)
You can clearly tell the difference from the context, in this sentence at least
thats isn't entirely correct 'Ash2of6'.
es is used to mean "you are / tu es"
est is used to mean "he (or she) is / il est"
No, that is not true, it has the same meaning, except that the French use different words for 'eat'(after a 'you') than the one they use for it when it is after an 'I', same goes for is/are (we only use 'is' and 'are' because I is for 1 and You can be for more than 1) e.g: 'I eat cheese.', 'Je mange du fromage' and 'You eat cheese', 'Tu manges fromage'.
419
In many cases, see here: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pronouns_stressed.htm
In the example above it's because there's more than one subject.
No, "toi" means "you".
"yourself" = "toi-même" or "vous-même" or the reflexive part with reflexive verbs
"Fais-le toi-même." = "Do it yourself."
"Tu te laves." = "You wash yourself."
And for clarification "Toi et un lion noir" means "You and a black lion".
Am I the only one who distinctly heard "tu es va lion noir?" It also sounds like there's a vowel sound before "lion" in the audio. Very confusing.
to me it sounds like "tu es VA lion noir" instead of " tu es UN lion noir". Is there a rule or something? I can clearly a "v" which isn´t in the text..
Except that the sentence "tu es va lion noir." doesn't make any sense, there is no particular rule to differentiate "un" from "va", since they sound really different.
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/va
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/un
There is no "v" sound, but you probably confused it with the "z" sound, which is used because of the "liaison" between "es" and "un".
If it can help you, you can try the same sentence here, to see if you can hear it better :
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/Tu%20es%20un%20lion%20noir.
Not exactly. "et" has an "é" sound. "est" and "es" have an "è" sound.
Here are links with native speakers :
http://www.forvo.com/word/et/#fr (all three are correct)
http://www.forvo.com/word/est/#fr (only splouf and clador06 got it right)
http://www.forvo.com/word/es/#fr (mgersin pronounces the "s" at the end, which shouldn't be pronounced, so I recorded my own version)
These can vary from a region to another, some regions in France pronounce "et" and "est" the same way, even though originally there is a difference.
Indeed, it depends on regionalism. As native speaker (parisian), I pronounce all of then the same.
And Duo teaches parisian French (well that's what it seems to me according to what I saw up to now on Duo).
- 419
when used in sentence "et" is not so clearly é though like e.g. in "préférer"
No, I pronounce "préférer" with three "é".
I think this confusion is due to the fact that the verb replace one of its "é" by an "è" in present tense :
"Il préfère."
- 419
ah sorry, this turned out completely wrong. Of course préférer has 3 "é"s. I meant that while in theory "et" is pronounced the same as those, in practice it sounds usually a bit different. But never mind, the difference is almost negligible of course
Is anyone else having trouble hearing the word Lion I cant hear it fast or slow
I can hear it. There are a lot of things in French that are difficult to hear until you become accustomed to these sounds. You'll hear them better and better as time goes by.
Like any new language you have to train your ear to recognize the different words and sounds. It helps to expose yourself to native French speakers. I have a native French speaking friend but when he's not available I listen to French radio (satellite) or listen to YouTube videos to enhance my listening skills otherwise it all sounds like gibberish lol
I thought I heard "Tu as un lion noir"... (meaning "you have a black lion"). How is the pronunciation different?
- 419
es = like E in egg or bed
as = like A in spa
... if you speak an "average" dialect of English :P
This is a very poor rendering of that sentence. There is no z sound. Distinctly a v.
I distinctly hear a "z". Perhaps it's just that it will take some time for you to get accustomed to these new sounds. French, Spanish, Portguese, Japanese etc all have different sounds. That's why when you're listening to someone speaking English who is not a native English speaker and they pronounce words in a certain accent, it sounds weird to you. They're not familiar with these subtle differences in pronunciation in English no more than you are familiar with the subtle differences in pronunciation in other languages.
In English you would be saying "you is".
I am = Je suis
You are = Tu es
He is = Il est
etc
to narrow down what NobleJohn has already said, you cant say You is a black lion, is and are are two seperate words in french
Would any real french speaker pronounce it this awefull? When I used slow speach I finally got what I was supposed to write, but even knowing that, I can hardly follow the fast speaker.
"un" or "une" can mean both the indefinite article "a/an" or the number "one".
However, in this context, we can't mean to use the number, since we ourselves decided to designate one person.
Except for some really specific context, such as talking to a person who would have the power to split himself into one or several animals for example. Then using the number could be used, if needed to specify the form the person took this time. But I don't think this situation is very likely.
Am I the only one having trouble understanding the meaning? I mean I typed it right but in my mind I thought "Tu as un lion noir" makes more sense. Is it a figurative speech or something?
