bird_wizard_

[worldly obsidian]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[violet tulip]

It's not silly, but I think you'll simply have to memorize that for professions, we say either :
il est <métier>
c'est un <métier>

I wonder if c'est un professeur would be accepted here.

[steel coyote]

I would never say that without 'un' so I'm confused

[stuck hatch]

Thank you!
So would “Elle est étudiante” and “C’est une étudiante” be correct as well? Is there a rule for what counts as a profession here?

[stuck hatch]

I’ll test that out next time I get a question like that!

[violet tulip]

If I were to risk an explanation, I would say it's because this structure likens the profession to a quality (il est grand). I'm not sure that's correct though, not a linguist

[violet tulip]

Yes both work. I suppose rather than for professions, it's valid for occupations in general

[steel coyote]

I mean that sort of makes sense, but I really don't think someone would be confused if you said that

[acoustic bay]

nobody would be confused if you said "il est un professeur", in the same way that nobody would be confused if you said "he is teacher" in English.

But it would be jarring.

"Il est professeur" or "c'est un professeur" are the natural non jarring ways to say it.

[ripe tree]

@stuck hatch don’t know if this has been said but when we’re talking about a job in french we don’t use un/une,for example i want to be a doctor
Je veux être un médecin ❌ - it just doesn’t work
Je veux être médecin ✅

[stuck hatch]

Does that happen with anything else or is it otherwise gonna be “un/une (noun a person can be)” all of the rest of the time?
I’m also wondering about things that are kind of occupations but aren’t jobs, like “She is a student” “She is a gambler” “He’s a musician (not as a profession, just casually)”

[ripe tree]

so usually in french when we don’t put an un/une

it means i work as a whatever

so

je suis médecin

i work as a doctor

but then also

je suis un médecin means i am a doctor

but then for your duolingo

your answer should be accepted

because it doesn’t say he works as

and you also use un/une if you’re adding in an adjective

[stuck hatch]

so then with your other example would “Je veux être un médecin” be “I want to be a doctor” while “Je veux être médecin” is “I want to work as a doctor”? Are both alright?

also thank you all for all these explanations it’s very helpful

[violet tulip]

Only “Je veux être médecin” works. “Je veux être un médecin” sounds weird.

[stuck hatch]

but both “je suis médecin” and “je suis un médecin” work?

[violet tulip]

Yes. Uh. It IS hard to explain.

[stuck hatch]

that’s alright, language is weird (in a cool way), it’s probably just something I’ll have to get a sense for over time :) thank you!

[violet tulip]

I can't figure a clear explanation as to when you can add "un". I'd say you should keep je suis <métier> as default.

As alternates, you can use je travaille comme <métier>, literally I work as...

[stuck hatch]

nice, thank you!

[violet tulip]

You'll find more stuff on random web ressources, like https://www.francaisavecpierre.com/parler-de-son-travail/#:~:text=Quand on parle de sa,devant le nom du métier.

[stuck hatch]

One last thing - Duolingo also says that “je travaille avec un professeur” is correct, is the distinction there that “professor” is the primary way the person is being referred to as opposed to the other examples where it’s telling you something about a person being referred to with a name or pronoun?

like “professor” is the person rather than being something about “he” or “I” who is the person?

[violet tulip]

Yes I think that's a good way to see it

You would say "j'ai consulté un médecin", "j'ai engagé un jardinier", etc.

[tardy plaza]

@amber grove Please answer questions in the salle-de-classe channels directly in the automatically created threads (as you can see, there was already much discussion about this topic)

[amber grove]

i refuse 😤