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- "Мама с ребёнком идут в магаз…
"Мама с ребёнком идут в магазин."
Translation:Mom is going to the store with a child.
20 Comments
Thank you! I've understood that the word order sometimes affects the verb form.
The logic here is that if the verb follows "Мама с ребёнком", it assumes the form applicable to both of them, i.e. plural. If it follows just "Мама", it is natural to make it singular. This rule is not 100% strict though, and given the relative freedom of reordering sentences in Russian, I would only be able to tell you what sounds natural and what doesn't.
I wanted to make sure of the logic. Your explanation is very helpful. Thanks a lot!
I answered "mom and child are walking to the store". It said "You need the article "a" here".
No, you don't, not really. And if I'd written (more formally) "the mother and child", then the article would definitely not be required.
321
"Mom goes with the child to the store." was marked wrong, presumably because I used the article "the" instead of "a" to describe the child. Could someone explain why the Russian sentence infers an unspecified child?
- 321
Still marked wrong as of 5 Feb. 2018.
This was the "answer" proffered by DL: "Mom with the child go to the store."
I thought I'd seen everything. I realize that native or near-native fluency in Russian was the primary consideration when choosing moderators for this course, but shouldn't DL demand some modicum of English literacy? How is anyone expected to complete an exercise when the required "answers" are so grammatically indefensible?
"The mother and child are going to the store"
Should this be accepted?
I feel like the first "the" is also sorta tied to "child" when I say it like that ^
Yes, and it certainly sounds better than "Mom is going to the store with a child." (Who is with a child here, the mother or the store? Given the indefinite article, I suspect the latter.)
One comment though: I've noticed that Duo is quite strict about formal/informal dichotomy as far as parents are concerned: mum/mom=мама while mother=мать. The same goes for dad=папа while father=отец.
You have no idea just how stupid "The mother and a child are going to the store." sounds. It should be "The mother and child are going to the store."
"Mom and the kid are going shopping" rejected, but I recall идти в магазин as including "to go shopping" within its range of meaning.
OK -- this is the correct answer! An earlier version of this gave the correct response as Мама и ребёник идут в магазин, and that is not the same at all!
Since the verb is plural, the translation should be Mom AND a child are going, not Mom is going with a child, which would have a singular verb in Russian.
- 1193
"Мама идет в магазин с ребенком". Мама не может его оставить его дома и взяла с собой. "Мама с ребенком идут в магазин" - простое описание, что некие мама и ее ребенок идут, например, в магазин. Никакой истории тут нет.
