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- "У неё уже нет молока."
33 Comments
1412
I also tried 'She is already out of milk,' with no success. Reported it for them to consider.
It has a very similar meaning, but I don't think it's paedagogical to accept translations that are unnecessarily far from a more direct translation. The point of these exercises isn't just to get the meaning of the sentences, but to parse out why the words are in this or that order, and how they influence each other.
- 1412
As a retired teacher of several languages, I actually agree with your point about not necessarily having to accept translations that differ too much from the structure or wording of the original, depending on what it is that one is trying to teach. However, I don't agree with on your assessment of my alternative. And I do think it's important to capture the point or essential message of the original. Certainly several others here have recognized that уже may be rendered as 'already,' and not just 'no longer,' depending on the rest of the English sentence. And as a native speaker of English, I don't think that 'She already has no milk,' captures the sense that this is a potential problem as well as 'She is already out of milk' or Duo's 'She no longer has milk.' For me the point with уже here is that there was a change of state, from having something to not having it, that has implications. To 'be out of something (already)' is a very natural and valid way to express that.
Bit confused about this construction - by adding уже "already" it becomes past tense?
It's just an idiom - уже + a negative construction means "no longer".
У неё уже есть молоко - she already has milk (because she went to the store earlier) У неё уже нет молокa - she no longer has milk (because she drank it all)
Both indicate that a transition from one state to another has happened, but it's probably better to just memorize them separately - there's no exact correspondence to English.
Read literally, it would be like
"She already (does not have milk)"
So, it has already occurred the event of her not having milk. That is, in short, she no longer has milk :)
This is not the same meaning as the English "already" though. Already implies some quality of earliness, like it may have happened sooner than expected. That doesn't seem to be the case with this use of уже.
Her "running out of milk" happened sooner than expected, probably. Not sure that I get the difference. I am probably influenced by my native Spanish though, as Spanish also uses this "already not" construction ("ya no") just like in Russian.
- 193
Again and again, we are not here to construct sentences in English but in Russian. The pedagogy of this exercise is idiotic
Correct solution: • She has no milk already. • She no longer has milk.
Say what now?
I think it's because 'already' has a feeling of time/urgency/quickness whereas 'nolonger' simply states the state of milk has changed from having it to not, regardless of how slowly or quickly it happened
So уже means already in every lesson, until this one, where it doesn't. And how would I know this??
It sort of means "already" here too.
"already not" makes sense, if you think about it. Think of it like "It is already the case that (something) not (something)", which is valid English. In Russian and Spanish for example, it is just the case that this "already not" is the normal way of speaking. In English, it just happens that "already not", although logical, it not used, and "no longer" or "not ... anymore" is the way the sentence is built instead.
Just to clarify what I mean, this particular duo sentence "could be thought of" as "It is already the case that she does not have milk"
I believe it could be translated also " she does not have milk yet " right? Does duolingo ever read this feedback?
She doesn't have milk anymore is marked as wrong, I feel like it's actually a better translation than the answer
