This quiz is a bit baffling.

Question

You point out that in English we don't tend to use the 'some' that is necessary in French, but then in your examples, you translate all the sentences using some/any. eg 'I eat some jam',  'he buys some bread', 'do you want some potatoes?' etc. In the quiz we are not told we can choose multiple answers so going by the law of averages we assume that 'Jane eats some ice cream' must be the correct answer where in fact you then say that is only 'nearly' right and 'Jane eats ice cream' is what you want. I would have chosen the right answer had you not persistently translated your examples with 'some'! Perhaps you should either bracket all the 'somes' or allow for both answers  to be right?

Accepted Answer

Hi David,
In the case of 'Aurélie eats bread', it can only be 'du' as we don't know how much of it she is eating.
If you said 'Aurélie a mangé le pain' , it would mean, either the one you were talking about or maybe all the bread that was left.
If you said 'Aurélie likes bread' you would then use 'le pain' as we don't know which one and assume she likes all types of bread.
With 'manger' , you have to use the partitive  as you clearly can't eat all the bread unless you have specified the one you were talking about.
I know it is tricky for English speakers to get but I hope this helps!

Answer

I agree. You can use some or omit it in English, it makes no difference to the meaning. Both answers are right.

Answer

Hi Jane, 
Can you re-post this using the ‘Report it’  button on your Correction Board as it will link directly to the quiz you are referring to and makes it easier to answer your query.
Merci d’avance!

Answer

Sorry I can't see a 'Report it ' button anywhere!

Answer

You may have to do that particular quiz again...

Answer

Exactly!

Answer

I have the same problem and when I click "Report issue", my responses from Rowen seem to indicate that the question and its answers are not copied along with my typed in comments.

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Further, the question for me was "Aurélie eats bread", and my answer, marked incorrect was "le pain", with the correct answer being "du pain". This is clearly generalized and should be the definite article, not partitive. If there is some exception in French for manger, vs. aimer, etc. it is not mentioned in any of the lessons.

Answer

Hi David - I've just checked the last couple of emails you sent and they did come in linked to the questions you referred to, so the 'Report an issue' link is definitely working. Please check my replies and if you have any further questions, feel free to reply to those and I can look into it again for you!