What to use when speaking about generalities?I'm a little confused because I was under the impression that when you talk about something in general (not a specific thing), then you use le / la / les
For example, "Les trains sont grands" = Trains are big.
Not any one particular train, just trains in general.
In my latest quiz I was asked to translate "Aurélie eats bread."
To me that is a general statement, we're talking about bread in general, not any particular loaf or piece of bread. In the same way you could say "I don't eat meat". So I put "Aurélie mange le pain", but this is apparently incorrect and instead should be "du pain".
I would have thought "Aurélie mange du pain" would translate to "Aurélie is eating some bread", no?
Thanks
hi can you please help me with this example
J'ai encore des cadeaux à acheter - Marie les a déjà tous achetés.
Why is this not Marie en a déjà......
I thought that if it is a partitive then you use en.
thank you for your help
Cordialement
Krissa
I'm a little confused because I was under the impression that when you talk about something in general (not a specific thing), then you use le / la / les
For example, "Les trains sont grands" = Trains are big.
Not any one particular train, just trains in general.
In my latest quiz I was asked to translate "Aurélie eats bread."
To me that is a general statement, we're talking about bread in general, not any particular loaf or piece of bread. In the same way you could say "I don't eat meat". So I put "Aurélie mange le pain", but this is apparently incorrect and instead should be "du pain".
I would have thought "Aurélie mange du pain" would translate to "Aurélie is eating some bread", no?
Thanks
The lesson states:
To express to need + [noun], you will use :avoir besoin de/d' + (article) + noun
The examples cited show the use of the indefinite article but none include the definite article and it could be implied that the definite article is never used after avoir besoin de/d' which is obviously wrong. It is the old problem of the specific vs the general. Since this is a perrenial problem for French learners, it might be an idea to spell it out more explictly in the lesson.
Tom
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