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- Topic: French >
- "Je suis sûr."
52 Comments
It seems that "Je suis sûre" should also be a correct translation... what if the person speaking is a girl??
No, it is just that "sûr" and "sûre" are homophones and the system uses the written sentence as a benchmark. So, I disabled the dictation exercise and reported the sentence so that the developers can apply their special filter.
I'm doing this on a computer without sound, and I am a girl. "Sur" is incorrrect for me.
It won't let me report "sûre" as correct, so I reported it for everything else I could check. :|
Your own gender does not count. The problem is that homophones do not seem to be accepted anymore.
1846
I had this as a multiple choice question (not: "mark all correct translations"), and I was only allowed to choose the male form. Can you also disable MC questions or at least prevent it from choosing another correct sentence?
- 1351
Assume masculine in French unless feminine is indicated if you want to be safe.
In a room full of one thousand women if one man is present then the masculine form is required.
You can take that as an indication of the preference for the masculine form of expression.
- 1066
Yes but the sentence I heard was read by a woman, hence assume that the feminine form is the correct one.
- 1351
The pitch of the voice rendering a sentence through a machine is irrelevant to the choice of gender.
- 1066
May be, so I change my comment "je suis sûr" et"je suis sûre" sound identical so should be both accepted.
The speaker's voice does not matter since both voices speak out all sentences we write for them.
However, "sûr" and "sûre" are homophones so yes the system should accept both versions for the dictation exercise (write in French what you hear in French).
but before there was one like: vouz etês sûre which was supposedly "you are safe" so.. qu'est-ce que est correct? <- this hopefully means "what is correct"
"you are safe" = vous êtes en sécurité.
"you are sure" = vous êtes sûr(e)
Well, I confirm: it is very little likely that a native French would use "sûr" with a person to mean "safe".
Maybe with an inanimate object: "ce quartier est sûr" (= this neighbourhood is safe).
Agreed, I have that exact same thing. It feels kinda like there is someone laughing behind my screen at my incredulity.
- 1351
Assume that the machine has no gender because in fact it is a machine. In French, the machine would be assigned a gender but the sounds that it makes are not. If the sounds that it makes can be determined to be words, those words take on the gender assigned by grammar and context not the pitch of the sounds forming the words.
I had already told duo I can't listen right now (wrong computer), so I followed the fact that I am female. Apparently I'm not supposed to assume that I'm female.
- 1351
Yes. You should not assume that the sentences are about you even if they include the word I.
je = I = one person, so "sûr" (masculine) or "sûre" (feminine) are the only solutions.
It can mean "safe" with inanimate objects: un abri sûr (safe shelter), un système sûr.
But "une personne sûre" is a reliable person.
The enormous amount of work we have done in the past 3+ years to enable homophones seems to have vanished at the time they rebuilt the site...
- 378
While en sécurité may mean safe, safe is also given as a translation for sur when one clicks on it. If it's not correct, it shouldn't be offered as an option
It is correct, provided the context is suitable for "sûr" to mean "safe":
- c'est une ville/région sûre = it is a safe city/area
- c'est une personne sûre = he/she is reliable
- je suis sûr(e)/certain(e) = I am sure/certain
Really, one question before this, there was one grammatically identical with Nous (I think), but if it was they it would probably not have meant people.. Kinda nice if with the possible translations they add something like "things" or "people" as this sort of surprises make you feel more insecure about the french you learn in stead of it giving more confidence.
Can "sûr" stand alone, such as when answering a question?
--Would you like to come? --Sûr !
Indeed, we won't use "sûr" alone to express a very affirmative answer. What is possible though is using the adverb for that adjective:
-
Tu penses qu'il viendra ?
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Sûrement !
But, quite paradoxically, this does not really mean "100% for sure" in everyday language, but rather "probably"...!
A very colloquial, quite modern and very much used alternative to mean "sure!" as in your example would be:
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Tu veux venir ?
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D'office ! / Clair ! / À fond !
I disabled the audio exercise last month so you should not be asked to "type what you hear".
Another unfortunate detriment in the Android app is that comments do not show the date (relative or absolute) of when they were posted.
(Not crucial in your comment but since we were discussing platform nuances in another thread today I was reminded of this.)
Sorry about that. It explains why some users answer 5-year-old comments...
- 569
Why je suis sûr but j'ai raison and tu as tort. It sounds strange to say I have the right instead of je suis raison and tu es tort.
"Raison" and "tort" are nouns and with the verb "avoir", they belong to a list of similar constructions most of which translate to "to be + adjective".:
- J'ai faim
- J'ai soif
- J'ai chaud
- J'ai froid
- J'ai peur
- J'ai raison
- J'ai tort
- J'ai honte
Plus:
- J'ai envie (de)
- J'ai besoin (de)
