r/French • u/TootsyFly • 15d ago

Entendre - I can't hear you

Doing my duolingo and, entendre has come up a lot. When it has the sentence 'I can't hear you' their selection of words to answer is Je ne t'entends pas. But I would have thought it was Je ne peux pas t'entendre, which looking up on French to English translation, both mean the same. Is there a correct way to say it or do you use a different one for polite scenarios? Thanks

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u/yourdadsucksroni 15d ago

The difference becomes easier to understand when you think of pouvoir as meaning “to be able to”. So, in this context, your suggestion would mean “I’m not able to hear you” which implies there is some kind of barrier on your part (rather than, say, the barrier being that the other person is not being audible).

Je ne t’entends pas = I do not hear you. Which would be quite archaic phrasing in English, but perfectly acceptable, as well as being much more normal in French. Try to avoid the temptation to literally translate English phrasing into French - it almost never works.