"Где можно курить?"
Translation:Where am I allowed to smoke?
59 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
2287
Is the "am I" part strictly true? I feel that asking "Where am I allowed to smoke?" and "Where is smoking allowed?" are very different. I.e. One indicates the speaker is a smoker, the other does not.
203
Not correct translation "Where am I allowed to smoke?". More precise is: "Где я могу покурить?" или "Где мне можно покурить?". Phrase "Где можно курить"? " should be translated like: "Where is it allowed to smoke?".
The reason this wouldn't be accepted is because of the English translation. That sentence doesn't work in English. It sounds like you probably get the Russian meaning just fine, but for Duolingo to work, the English sentences should in theory make sense also. There are a number of ways I might say this:
Where is one allowed to smoke? Where is it permitted to smoke? Where may one smoke? Where is smoking allowed? Where is smoking permitted?
But in English, we'd never say "Where is allowed..." You MIGHT be able to say "Where is it allowed to... " but even that is a tiny bit awkward.
Not really, no. One thing you'll learn about languages is that things don't always translate literally. Russian and English are very different languages, so they're going to use different constructions for a lot of things. That's one of the harder parts of learning languages, having to learn how things are supposed to be written when they don't translate word for word.
In this case the Russian sentence seems to be more general. Another way to translate it could be "Where are you allowed to smoke?" with the you being more general, or "Where is one allowed to smoke?" Perhaps the most literal way to translate it would be "Where is smoking allowed?"
I'm not sure if any of those translations are currently accepted, but they should be appropriate translations regardless.