"Моя девушка не умеет готовить, зато она много ест."
Translation:My girlfriend cannot cook, but she eats a lot.
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I'm relating to Slovak language, and I think 'though' should be right, too. For me 'although' sounds like marking the first fact: She eats a lot - and hasn't learnt to cook anyway. While 'zato' in Slovak means more like She can't cook, but she still eats a lot. The meaning is slightly different when you switch the order of sentences, at least for me. But maybe I'm completely wrong, could a Russian speaker explain us? :D
In English, "though", "although", "even though" & "however" are all interchangeable here.
Зато is more or less the same, and in this case I would translate it to "although" :-)
"Although" and "even though" would work better, but "though" should totally be acceptable.
Doesn't зато have a conciliatory tone? So couldn't it be translated as 'but at least she eats a lot'?
But you need to be careful; the english grammar often "requires" (though it is non-mandatory) a semi-colon there: "When you use however in the middle of a sentence to separate two clauses, it is usually separated with a semicolon and a comma (... ;however,…). Many modern writers use a comma instead of the semicolon, but the semicolon is still regarded as more correct." - http://www.onlinegrammar.com.au/however-commas-or-semicolons/
"But" seems to me like a better and simpler option.
Yeah the way the typed it makes it seem like "Man my girlfriend can't even cook but she is always eating everything" sounds like a complaint to me lol
I don't get why an inability to cook and a large appetite is a deal breaker. That could be a great way to bond with someone.
Девушка - a young woman, maiden, lass.
Подруга - a girlfriend (a female friend).
Both words can be used in the sense of a date, lover, just as girlfriend can be used in the sense of just a friend, and more than a friend. Though девушка is used in that sense more often than подруга (unlike English).
This is s very dangerous phrase. I wish i hadnt learned it. Just back away slowly
we know that we all clicked on the discuss, just so we can see the funny comments
Wait so I thought that зато was used when you have a negative statement followed by a positive one that "makes up for" the negative statement. In this sentence, it's two negatives (well, I guess the second one is up to interpretation, but whatever lol) joined by зато. Is this just another usage of the conjunction, or am I missing something here? Thanks in advance :)
My Russian instructors translate it as "despite that". So here it would be "My girlfriend cannot cook, despite that she eats a lot.
I read the tips of this lessons, it said that зато is used when you wanna say something positive after a negative thing... so it's good she eats a lot, even though she can't cook? (btw, I'm that girlfriend)
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"Chef" would be the word you're after, instead of "cooker". Unless, of course, he aspires to be a kitchen appliance.
Besides, how would being a kitchen appliance help if the girlfriend can't cook?
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Well, maybe the girlfriend can lives with her parents and they can use the "partner-cooker-kitchen-appliance" to cook.
(non-English speaker problems)
A lot of these practice sentences are hilarious if you i agine the creatures as being super passive-aggressive :)
oh, wow, I was waiting to see what would be hard for English speakers, for instance Russian speakers often don't hear the difference between duck and dog.
I can assure you, she pronounces девушка really well, I would never think it was девочка.
That sucks for me, because I still seem to hear девочка rather than девушка hahaha
The difference is something along the lines of Top vs Put, with the Russian о sounding like o in Top and the Russian у like u in Put. There's also a slight difference in that ч=ch and ш=sh
девочка would sound something like "dyévuhchka" The recording clearly says "dyévooshka"; even if you can't hear the difference in the vowels, you should be able to tell the voice is saying "SH", not "CH".
Is the Г in много not supposed to be pronounced as "V"? A Russian I spoke with a while ago corrected me and told me to use "V" almost always if in the middle of a word
Since no one more articulate in the tongue has deigned to respond to your query, Friend howlingmadpanda, I will attempt to assist. With the forewarning that I am not fluent in Russian and the ravages of senescence have left their mark on my powers of recollection, I seem to recall once reading the following rule regarding your question. If you encounter the letter combinations “егo” or “огo” AND the vowel preceding the letter “г” (in this case, “е” or “о”) is NOT stressed, the letter “г” is then pronounced as a “в”. Otherwise, the “г” is pronounced as a “г”. Once again, do not take this as gospel (i.e., an unquestionable truth), but in my limited experience it seems to hold true. I invite someone with a mastery of the language to enlighten us both.
Teach a girl to cook and she'll feed you for a lifetime my mama always says.
Agree with blackbabyj andlucasSherluck. I think better use 'at least' or 'meanwhile', or 'instead'.
I would think that "..., but she eats a lot on the other hand" would be accepted. Is there a reason it's not?
my advice, don't move words around without strong reason, it's really hard for just a few people to add all possible combinations
Just a few people? Who are we talking about here? How many people operate duolingo? How do they make money?
Very few, there is a small team of developers who work on the technical side of all courses, there are less than 50 of them. And then there are incubator teams of volunteers which develop language courses, normally less than 10 people per course. As much as I know in terms of money Duolingo still doesn't bring any profits. They tried to sell translations, now they sell language tests.
I translated as "My girlfriend doesn't cook, however she eats a lot." Marked wrong, though means the same thing.
Sorry Friend Miketx, but I disagree. There is a big difference between “doesn’t cook” and “cannot cook.” They do not mean the same thing.
Quick question for russian speakers - can it be translated as: My girlfriend does not know how to cook, thats why she eats a lot?
Or more specific can we translate: зато - thats why
"Зато" translates as "but." So the sentence translates as: "My girlfriend does not know how to cook, but she eats a lot." The word "зато" does not mean "that's why."
Уметь means "know to" or "be able to." It is the main verb in this sentence.
If the sentence were "Моя девушка не готовит, зато она много ест" (note the change from готовить to готовит!) it would be translated as "My girlfriend does not cook, but she eats a lot."
This literally is the funniest translation, next to Jenny's problem of leaving the luggage in the taxis.
All good day.I am Russian speaking and my answer is "My girlfriend does not know how to cook, even though she eats a lot" is it correct?
What would be the difference between the use of но and зато in this case? Would either work?
Haha, she compensates for not cooking by eating a lot. IDK if I would find that compensatory. :p How about Она не умеет готовить, зато она часто покупает мой ужин?
I used my girlfriend doesn't know how to cook, however she eats a lot. It seems appropriate given the hint include that combination of words, but it was rated as incorrect.
Russian prepositions , if that is what зато etc are, seem really tricky.
Which parent say my children eat a lot Is it normal to say that you are eating much
So the words we can use for the word "but" is "но" and "зато"? What's the difference between the two? Are they interchangeable?
I think that "my girl does not know how to cook" is as correct as saying that she cannot cook.
"my girlfriend does not how to cook, however she eats a lot" why is this sentence not correct?
@87Colette: Because you omitted the word "know," as in "...does not KNOW how to cook."
"My girlfriend does not how to cook, however she eats a lot." Why is this sentence not correct?
I was marked wrong for a slightly different word order:
Мой сестра не любит курицы, зато очень хорошо готовит её.
... as opposed to:
Моя сестра не любит курицу, зато очень хорошо её готовит.
Does my answer not sound natural?
