"Vous pouvez manger seul ?"
Translation:You can eat alone?
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"Can" or "may" translate "pouvoir", depending on context.
The inversion of Verb and Subject is the specific form of a question: can/may you eat alone?
What I see at the top of this page is a mix where the French version is casual "vous pouvez... ?" (Subject-Verb) whereas the English version is standard "can you...?" (Verb-Subject).
However, in French, you still have 3 ways of asking a question: formal - standard - casual:
- Pouvez-vous manger seul ?
- Est-ce que vous pouvez manger seul ?
- Vous pouvez manger seul ?
In addition, "can you eat alone" can be translated either with the familiar "tu", or the polite singular "vous" or the plural "vous", and all three alternatives can be feminine or masculine:
- Peux-tu manger seul ?
- Peux-tu manger seule ?
- Pouvez-vous manger seul ?
- Pouvez-vous manger seule ?
- Pouvez-vous manger seuls ?
- Pouvez-vous manger seules ?
To sum it up, there are 18 ways of translating "can you eat alone?"...
I really am not trying to be difficult, but I still don't understand why the word "seul" in this case cannot be plural. Duo marked it wrong when I used "seuls" and insists that it must be singular and I'd like to know if there is a reason for that. Is it because, as you said previous, that the sentence is fine but Duo didn't anticipate that we'd translate it different ways?
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What you can do if you disagree with Duo marking an answer wrong is click on the red flag in the banner that tells you if you're wrong or right and click "My answer should have been accepted." I don't think you get your heart back, but it helps Duolingo function better.
Alright, I know now what the issue is: as you have noticed "seul, seule, seuls, seules" are homophones (same pronunciation).
Duo is currently working on a better way to filter homophones and accept variants, even if the original, written sentence used for dictation was not identical.
So, in the meantime, you have to memorize the gender and number of the "original, written" sentence so that you can write it down correctly when you get it in dictation.
I understand that 'Very often, in speech, the French ask questions as if they were statements, only raising their voice on the last syllable so that it "sounds" as a question.' but isn't it a speech from the street? Isn't it correct to say 'Can you eat alone?' in English? I don't mind learning slang, down to earth expressions, etc, I just want to know what is what.
Asking questions as if they were statements is not slang, just informal in spoken French. In writing, you should use "Est-ce que vous mangez seul(e)(s) ?", which is standard French. "Can you eat alone?" is the standard way of asking questions in English and it is accepted. However, "You can eat alone?" is possible, as an expression of surprise or disbelief.