sentir vs se sentir

April S.C1Kwiziq community member

sentir vs se sentir

test question asked for "I feel nothing". I put "Je me sens rien" and it was marked incorrect. The correct answer was "Je sens rien". Please explain.

Asked 4 years ago

Like0Answer2

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Se sentir is used to express how one feels, not what one feels.

Je me sens vide. -- I feel empty.
Je ne sens rien. -- I feel nothing.

A bit more on this here: https://french.yabla.com/lesson-Feeling-in-French-Sentir-Se-sentir-Ressentir-670

Like04 years ago

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

The difficulty is that in English, we will use "I feel nothing" as an emotional expression (equivalent to "I feel empty/down/flat etc" in English), but this doesn't translate to French as 'how' but 'what' as Chris notes.

Like04 years ago

April S. asked:

sentir vs se sentir

test question asked for "I feel nothing". I put "Je me sens rien" and it was marked incorrect. The correct answer was "Je sens rien". Please explain.

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