31 Comments
I feel like in English it should be correct to say: My cat foes not like washing itself.
Washing itself could be done with its tongue and front paw. I think this word/sentence construction implies using water
Then it should be "My cat doesn't like to be washed". "My cat doesn't like to wash" means your cat doesn't like doing the dishes or washing the car or something. Btw, the sentence with "itself" is still not accepted.
I think this word/sentence construction implies using water
Perhaps not for cats. The НКРЯ (Russian National Corpus) finds "И опять кошка, на этот раз уже черная, моется лапкой, нас зазывает." "And again the cat, this time already black, моется with its paw, invites us."
But in general, yes, the use of liquid is implied:
мыться: мыть себя, свое лицо, руки. (мыться: to мыть oneself, one's face, hands.) мыть: очищать кого-что-нибудь от грязи при помощи воды или воды с мылом, а также при помощи какой-нибудь другой жидкости. (мыть: to clean somebody/something of dirtiness with the help of water or soapy water or with the help of some other liquid)
"Мой кот не любит мыться." definitely means that the cat (like most cats) doesn't like when its owner drags it into the bathroom to pour water and soap on it. Despite the reflexive suffix. If you don't want to use the reflexive verb, you can say "Мой кот не любит, когда его моют."
"My cat doesn't like washing itself" (using its tongue and paws) would be "Мой кот не любит умываться." In case of animals (cats, at least, not sure about others), "умываться" doesn't mean washing only one's face and hands and brushing teeth.
Cats nuances.
Thank you! I searched in vain for the common word used for cats' conventional means of grooming. Finding only two examples in the corpus of кошка near forms of мыться I figured that wasn't it. What do you think the example above actually refers to? Or the other one: "Я видел в окне чердака кошку: как она мылась..."
Well, your previous example unambiguously specified that the cat used its paw to wash itself and in this case it sounds okay.
This example, on the other hand, sounds a little bit weird to me. When I read it, I imagine a cat standing on its back paws inside a bathtub, with a brush and a piece of soap.
"Мой кот не любит мыться." is about cats' known distaste of washing with water and that's why it probably sounds unambiguously.
"Wash" does not imply with the tongue and paw. It only seems to imply that because we're talking about a cat.
In English, "wash" implies using water. You don't wash a desk, you clean it. That is unless you are really spraying it down with water.
I would find it strange to say "the cat is washing itself" unless the cat was literally using water to wash itself. We would usually say "cleaning itself" with it's tongue and paw.
Google search results indicate that at least some portion of English language users view the matter differently.
If you google "cat washes itself" without the quotes, almost all results actually use the word cleans or grooms. This is because "cat washes itself" is incorrect or at least uncommon and strange.
Most English speakers use poor grammar and make lots of mistakes. I find it strange to say the cat washes itself, but I would barely take notice because it's so obvious in context and I am used to hearing mistakes all the time.
I'm new to learning Russian but it seems like the point is that it's completely wrong to say "мыться" for cleaning with tongue and paw where in English it would be acceptable.
Still, I think it is a correct translation to say "My cat does not like washing itself" even if it's a little more ambiguous than the original sentence.
Edit: I guess then the sentence is to blame because it creates this situation where a student can get marked "wrong" even though the translation is not incorrect. If the sentence talked about a boy instead of a cat this wouldn't be an issue.
I started out writing that the meanings of words shift all the time, and just because the dictionary don't have a cat-specific definition of "wash" now doesn't mean they won't in the future. But, well, just see definition 2.
Regarding Russian use, please see the example obtained from the Russian National Corpus.
I don't get this one at all: I was given only the option of "showering"...call me crazy, but I do not believe cats can take showers by themselves! If they are trying to say, "my cat doesn't enjoy being bathed", doesn't that have to be expressed differently, not with the reflexive form?
I agree. Having some experience with reflexive verbs in Spanish, I know that - while they usually do - reflexive verbs don't always literally translate into an action returning to the noun, and can take on more nuanced meanings.
In this case, cats don't shower. As a literal translation for learners, I suppose it's acceptable. I found that they also accept "My cat doesn't like bathing, " which is a little better, even though cats don't usually clean themselves by bathing in water. The idea is the same, washing oneself, without insinuating the use of a shower of water.
I think generally good translations drive toward an analogous meaning, regardless of equivalent syntax or word choice. Being that cats in the real world either clean or groom themselves, or they are bathed, washed or cleaned by someone, I think the better answer would tend toward those phrasings.
cats don't shower
Maybe they would if they liked it more ;)
See mosfet's comments as to the meaning of this particular sentence.
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They are referring to a human pet called a cat, obviously. And some actual cats do like showering.
I'm confused... is thise supposed to be comical?
I went with "My cat doesn't like to be washed," but maybe it's not supposed to be a passive-voice construction?
But the Cambridge Dictionary gives these definitions:
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bath (verb) - to wash in a bath or to wash someone in a bath: She baths every morning. I usually bath the kids in the evening.
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bathe (verb) - to swim, especially in the sea, a river, or a lake: Children suffering from the illness had bathed in sea water contaminated by sewage.
The U.S. and the U.K.: two countries separated by a common language :)
In all seriousness, had no idea!
I do see (in the British section, obviously; in the American there is no verb listing at all, sensibly enough from my familiarity with this) that bath as an intransitive verb (i.e. the "baths every morning" example), which it also would be here, is marked "old fashioned." http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bath?fallbackFrom=british-grammar
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one is UK and one US English, there is really nothing more to it than that. A pain in the ass that after 10 months the translation with "bath" is still not accepted.
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As a Canadian with one foot planted firmly in UK English and the other in US English, I have to constantly remind myself that as far as this course is concerned, the version of English used is American. This is clearly stated on DL. Put your OED and Cambridge dictionaries aside, buy a copy of Webster and get used to the fact that Americans would never use the word bath as a verb.
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In Canada we would bathe a child by giving her a bath in the bathtub.
We would never bathe a cat, because that would be too dangerous but we might have to lift a cat out of the bath after we have attempted to bathe it (good cat and dog owners neuter their pets, hence the usage of "it"). One might be able to buy a cat bath from Amazon, but I would take my cat to PetSmart should it ever need a bath.
Several exercises ago, I was rather annoyed when DL disallowed "cat" for "кот", insisting I should gave answered "tomcat"! Why the change of heart?
Maybe an omission or technical glitch with the other sentence. Do you remember what it was?
