[Originally posted on 03/26/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by Remy]
In French, “fille” has two meanings:
1) “girl”, when the sentence is about a female child.
- Ex: “Je suis une fille.” translates to “I am a girl.”
In such case, “daughter” is NOT accepted on Duolingo.
2) “daughter”, when the sentence clearly implies a family connection between some parent(s) and the female child.
- Ex: “C’est notre fille.” translates to “She is our daughter.”
In such case, “girl” is also accepted on Duolingo. Note that “fille” in the sense of “daughter” is often preceded by a possessive adjective (ma/ta/sa/notre/votre/leur).
You have to use the context to determine whether you should translate “fille” to “girl” or “daughter”.
Selected comments on original post
I can relate. I started DL to review my French that I take in school (I now use DL only for German) and I didn’t realize that even in my 2nd year I forgot that fille meant girl, homme means boy and that comme means like (not aimer like, but in a simile).
Duolinguists 