mr.moderino

[heavy nebula]

Please be patient

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

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

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.

[gleaming dust]

Context

[shy idol]

Le vs Les
Le -> luh
Les -> leh (like the first part of** l'é**cole)

[gleaming dust]

The same way you know if "they" refers to one person or multiple in English

[shy idol]

now il vs ils SOMETIMES is conjugation
liek il est VS ils sont

but otherwise thats context

[gleaming dust]

Arguably in English it's even harder bc our conjugation doesn't change

It can also come out bc of liaison

Il était = ilétè
Ils étaient = ilzétè

[shy idol]

Il aime (il aime)
Ils aiment (il ZAime)

[short forum]

Wait can you explain this.

[gleaming dust]

They went to the store

[shy idol]

They are (singular/plural) here

this is in context of singular they

[short forum]

''Il aime'' ''Ihlz Zame''?

[shy idol]

sth like that yeah

because the S exists after ilS

[gleaming dust]

Il aime, il zaime

[shy idol]

but if its il mange vs ils mangent

youre gonna have to go by context

Tu sais, Melody et Harmony elles mangent beaucoup

you know its plural from the fact i said two people

rather than

Tu sais, Melody elle mange beaucoup

[short forum]

I think thats Ils vont a le magasin in french

[shy idol]

au*

[gleaming dust]

If you're using a pronoun you generally already have the context of who you're talking about

[gleaming dust]

But it could be singular

[short forum]

Why is it au 😦

[shy idol]

à + le = au

[gleaming dust]

à + le = au

[short forum]

ahhh thank you

au is masculin i think

[shy idol]

il va VS ils vont

[shy idol]

voilà

[gleaming dust]

Yea

[shy idol]

à + le = au
à + la = à la
à + les = aux

[short forum]

and a la is feminine and les is plural both

[shy idol]

aux*

[short forum]

I never realized other countries could struggle with the lack of verb conjugation. I always thought no verb conjugations simplified things

oops aux

[shy idol]

look at esperanto you will cry

[short forum]

I will not be looking at esperanto 👍

[shy idol]

good fanboy

[gleaming dust]

There are always pros and cons. Everything is complex, just in different ways. With clarity comes complexity

[short forum]

I think theres also the adding the ' in sentences. Example: 'Les enfants n'aiment pas aller a l'ecole (Children dont like going to school)

The le becomes a l'ecole I think

[shy idol]

la but yes

[gleaming dust]

Spanish doesn't even need the subject to know who's doing the action bc that information is stored in the conjugations themselves

[shy idol]

italian too

[shy idol]

i said this before fanboy with context before

as long as theyu put who it is and then yoink a subject you will know if its il/ils/elle/elles

names or people doesnt matter

in french i think a lot of french people do emphasise this

in a way you understand who it is and how many people

[short forum]

I will remember the word sais means know. Are you saying. You know Melody and Harmoney they eat very well?

[shy idol]

a lot*

its more of a Y'know, Melody and Harmony eat a lot

[gleaming dust]

There are 2 verbs for "know" in french so be careful

[shy idol]

that too

im so glad chinese has this built in function too

just lacks conjugation HAHAA

[gleaming dust]

Yea

[short forum]

what did the chinese build

ive heard mandarin is very hard and lots of memorization

[shy idol]

connaître 認識/认识 - relational knowledge
savoir 知道 - propositional knowledge

[short forum]

japanese is also very hard with alot of memorization

[gleaming dust]

I mean writing systems are inherently a bit tricky

[shy idol]

je CONNNAIS (connaître) Melody - I know Melody (the person, as a relation)
je sais que tu es malade - I know you are sick (proposition: you are sick)

[shy idol]

i was forced to learn

[gleaming dust]

Proposition*?

[shy idol]

oui

[gleaming dust]

Not fully sure

Ok

[shy idol]

t'as raison

anyways, if you have further questions @short forum welcome to ask in #salle-de-classe! bonne journée

[short forum]

thank you, i will absolutely be asking more questions. the whole ne and pas negation stuff is incredibly confusing and i miss the english version of just saying not, don't and ain't 😢 One of my questions will be the duolingo picture ''Do you like French Restaurants'' with the answer being ''Tu aimes les restaurants francais'' (The les confuses me)

thank again french helpers much appreciated, it's definitely a struggle learning a new language, especially when I wasn't a top student in school

[static wharf]

Yeah it's not that simple lol. English negation isn't always consistent. I wrote ''s not' in the first sentence but 'isn't' in the second. Why didn't I write it the other way around. On that note, why did the conjugation move from 'wrote' to 'did'? How do you keep track of that? Why is it that some verbs can just tack it like 'can' but I can't do the same across the board? Why do I have to insert a 'to do'? I don't understand. If I said it the other way around, 'but I don't can' and 'I understand not', it wouldn't make sense. Why's that?

At least with French all I have to do is add « ne … pas » around the conjugated verb and my work is done.
« Il comprend –> Il ne comprend pas »
« Il a marqué l'erreur -> Il n'a pas marqué l'erreur »
With English, I have to know whether or not the verb I'm negating is a modal verb or not. If so, I can just tack on 'n't' at the end but if not, I have to insert the verb 'to do'. Thing is, by inserting that verb, the conjugation goes to that verb so I have to make sure that my main verb is no longer conjugated.
'He understands –> He doesn't understand'
'He has marked the error –> He hasn't marked the error'