#takkian

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

weary canopyBOT
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Please be patient

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wintry void
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Okay so a pronoun is basically something that replaces a noun or a person

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If I say, ‘I am’, I is referring to the first person singular, i.e. the person who is speaking

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If I say ‘I see it’, ‘it’ is referring to the third person singular, i.e. the thing that is being spoken about not involved in the conversation

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English distinguishes between a thing (it) and a person (he/she)

wintry void
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I see the chair = I see it
I see Adam = I see him

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Great, now let’s jump to French

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Unlike in English, the pronouns « le/la/les » can refer to both things and people

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So if we have « je vois la chaise », we have « je la vois », where the pronoun « la » is replacing « la chaise ». If you’re wondering why it’s « la », well the pronoun has to agree to the noun it is replacing/referring to. If I said, ‘I see Adam’, ‘Adam’ is one man so the pronoun is ‘him’, a singular masculine pronoun; if I replaced ‘Adam’ with ‘Eve’, the pronoun is ‘her’ because the noun is now singular feminine; if I instead had ‘Adam and Eve’, it would be ‘them’ because this is a plural noun

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Je vois le fauteuil = Je le vois
Je vois la chaise = Je la vois
Je vois la chaise et le fauteuil = Je les vois

Je vois Adam = Je le vois
Je vois Ève = Je la vois
Je vois Adam et Ève = Je les vois

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@twilit marten Read that

twilit marten
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omg this make it so much easier 🥹

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Thank you so much

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oh yea if I can ask about what other thing is how do you tell words are either masculine or feminine I remember asking someone but they said you just need to know the word, but I seen online that there are “ways” to tell if a word is masculine or feminine

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Like for an example isn’t voiture feminine? How would I be able to tell off of the word

wintry void
sick musk
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It's just a matter of rote memorization although, as you said, some words have endings that can indicate masculinity or feminity though those rules aren't absolute and there are exceptions.
For example, -ette is mostly feminine but squelette is an exception.

wintry void
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There are 'endings' that you can use but know that they're not foolproof

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For example, things ending in « -age » are masculine like « le village, le convoiturage, le voisinage, le garage, le paysage, le pélérinage » except for « la plage, la page, l'image »

twilit marten
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So what do you think would be the best option for me to identify the genders of words?

wintry void
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The logic here is that the « -age » is actually a suffix and the gender of a suffix dominates. The words I've just mentioned, they're all compound words in the sense that they are formed from an existing noun/verb plus a prefix/suffix like « village » is « la ville + -age », « covoiturage » is « co- + voiture + -age », « voisinage » is « le voisin + -age », etc. Because « plage, page, image » are not compound words, they don't exhibit this behaviour

wintry void
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i.e. don't just memorise « chaise », memorise « la chaise »

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or « une chaise »

twilit marten