"На земле лежит собака."
Translation:A dog is lying on the ground.
54 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I answered "The dog is lying on the ground". Would that only apply to "собака лежит На земле", because the subject appears first in that sentence? Or should my answer also have been accepted?
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Olimo, I had answered: The dog is lying on the ground. I was under the understanding that "dog" being the subject to place it in the beginning of the sentence when translated, which I did. So my question is did I get it wrong for using the word "the" instead of "a"? If so why? thanks for your time.
It's wrong, because how else is Duolingo going to shove adds down your throat if they don't fail you for things that you got right.
Duolingo Russian is apparently forcing me to re-learn the difference between "lay" and "lie" from back in high school...
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"The dog is lying on the ground." was also not accepted. That's simply an article change from "A" to "The". Is this a Duolingo omission or can we actually distinguish between which is which in this context?
I got marked wrong because I used "The" instead of "A". It seems as though "The" should be accepted.
I said "A dog lies on the ground," and that seems to be incorrect. How would they differ in Russian?
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Are you sure about that? I’ve only ever been told that definite and indefinite articles in Russian are only identifiable by context (at least without adding words like этот). So the moderators just haven’t yet for this exercise added the translation. Could you point to an official rule for how sentence arrangement determines definiteness in Russian? Thanks.
I do not know if there is a rule about that, but I think Kundoo is right.
But try to answer the question:
"Что собака делает?"
(What THE dog is doing)
using those two answers:
- На земле лежит собака.
- Собака лежит на земле.
I believe only the second one implies the definite article.
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Well, you just provided a context that does not exist in this exercise. What it sounds like to me is happening is that without a rule, either translation is perfectly acceptable, though some people will have their own preferences. This happens all the time when people explain English, so this effect is familiar. I will hear my countrymen say this is right or wrong—often emphatically—while themselves being wrong. For I will often use English in ways they believe is incorrect because of their own limited experience but which happens to be perfectly valid. Language is a funny thing. Where the rules end, we have much liberty. I like this liberty and find it artful; though you may be right, I am not inclined to trust you until I see the rule in this case, as even other places in the Duo forum and other Russian language websites seem to go against what you’re saying. Without the rule, either way must be correct.
So even if your native language is Russian, I am not inclined to believe you until I see the rule, and that’s the way it should be, that’s the way language works.
I do not think so.
My native language is Polish, which is very similar to Russian and this sentence works exactly the same way in Polish, one translates to ”a dog” and the other one to ”the dog”.
Trust me, the word order does matter.
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Because we know about THE dog, it goes first. Because we don't know where so it's the new info it goes last. Собака лежит на земле. If it said a dog is on the ground it's the reverse. На земле лежит собака. The dog is the new info. If that isn't correct please tell me!
I think the answer for this question is:
“Собака лежит на земле”
or just short answer would be:
“На земле”
I don't think so. 'Floor' is пол. 'Ground' (земля) should be used here.
Actually, here 'is' in your sentence means that the dog is STANDING or PRESENT on the ground. It would be 'Собака - на земле'.
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Probably because a dog lying on the grass is said the same way in both languages. But groceries are in a bag and don't lie in bags in English.
Just like in English the name of the planet is capitalized in Russian. So if you mean "Earth" it would be "Земля".
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"The dog is lying on the ground." Russian doesn't use articles. It doesn't matter if it is the dog or a dog. Should be accepted.
You are half right.
You do not use articles in Russian.
But when you translate to English then the word order matters.
Your sentence (The dog is laying on the ground) would be:
"Собака лежит на земле"
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The only difference between my translation and the Duolingo translation is an article "A" or The", not the word order. It is "a" or "the" that does not matter, since we do not know which without context.
In English, yes you do change the article only.
But your sentence is:
The dog is lying on the ground = Собака лежит на земле
While DL sentence:
A dog is lying on the ground = На земле лежит собака
So by changing the article A/THE in English you are getting two different sentences in Russian
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Im hearing земЛЕ but i thought it was supposed to be pronounced ЗЕМле. WHICH IS CORRECT?
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"A dog is lying on the floor" was not accepted. Is that a mistake or are there some fine differences, i am not aware of?
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I said "A dog is laying on the ground." Apparently I don't know English either- anyone know the difference between lay and lie?