Remains confusing! And absolutely no effective response to all the complaints noted below!

Question

How is «I eat neither apples nor pears»  in the test I just did, significantly different to  «I like neither cheese nor milk»? There is nothing at all that I can see in the construction of these sentences that gives a clue that the first is «Je ne mange ni pommes ni poires» while the second is «Je n'aime ni le fromage ni le lait» ie one uses definite article and one doesn't. If there is something special about the verb «aimer» or «manger» this needs to be detailed - but it is not. Perhaps one of the translations is 'wrong', noting that the French could be «I eat/I like» or «I am eating/I am liking». Nothing in this lesson clarifies this either, despite multiple comments and complaints that it is poorly discussed, and the examples are unsatisfactory.

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Maarten, 
Thank you for your comment, we've noted your feedback and this lesson has been flagged for review.
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

I am curious about this one, as well. Would like to see expansion of the rule set. I interpreted the lesson to indicate that "eats neither apples nor pears" suggests nominal generality, calling for the ni+ article + noun formula, but this doesn't seem to be the case unless the answer is coded wrongly. I could see the difference being that the general apples and pears here are still in reference to physical objects that do exist somewhere, if not at hand. Then we would see contrast in examples such as "elle ne tolère le sectarisme ni la haine" -- could someone confirm that is grammatical and if I am on the right track in the logic of difference for these forms of nominal generality?

Answer

oups je voulais dire "elle ne tolère ni* le sectarisme ni la haine"

Answer

The lesson is (to my mind, at least) much clearer after the recent update. Thanks also to Rowen for his response to a recent report and for notifying me directly that this clarification had been incorporated.

Answer

Definite articles le/la/les are used after 'adorer' and 'aimer'.