"Когда я была маленькая, у меня не было мобильного телефона."

Translation: When I was little I did not have a mobile phone.

[BozkaV]

Why is "... I had no mobile phone" not acceptable?

[cptchuckle]

It should be, report it

[jAdinegoro]

"... I had no mobile phone." Why, just why it is wrong :(

[OliverMundy]

I have the same question but shall not stay here to wait for an answer; at 65 my life-expectancy is not long enough. It is an infinite shame that a course which was full of interest and has clearly been the subject of much dedicated work by its compilers in the past should have been ruined by so many inconsistencies and self-contradictions such as this: a problem which, apparently, nobody is now willing to address.

[Edelgul]

You are right. I'm Russian native speaker, and i can't get past level 9 in Russian here. Shame really.

[piguy3]

Is there a reason it's not "Когда я была маленькой"? The only exception my Russian grammar book gives for the past tense predicate adjective-in-instrumental rule is nationalities.

[piguy3]

For anyone who might have the same question, Shady_arc provides a detailed reply here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16462939

[Reena_March]

"When I was young, I never had a cellphone"

"Когда я была маленькая, у меня никогда не было мобильного телефона"?

[AlexeiRosc1]

Да, правильно.)

[JBravo_1]

I understand with the a at the end and ая, in я была маленькая, it should be a woman saying this. We hear a man voice here. A man should say: "Когда я был маленьким. Is this right??

[Jeffrey855877]

There is no correlation between the gender of the audio voice and the gender of the sentences. Just look at it as Duo being funny, and enjoy the mismatch.

[Gaby754722]

This sentence sounds like of those nostalgic stuff on internet...you know, something like:
"Like if you was a 90's, 80's, 70's... kids".

[Nate_J]

Я тоже. Дети в наше время...

[Cannibal17]

Не был изобретён не существовал

[Ciara536496]

Why is не used rather than нет (I am used to the expression «у меня нет»)? I am guessing that it is to do with the past tense and that «у меня не было» is the equivalent past tense expression...

[piguy3]

yep

[Jeffrey855877]

мобильного телефона is genitive because у меня не было мобильного телефона is the correct past-tense equivalent of present-tense у меня нет мобильного телефона.

Is this format the generally accepted form, or can we say у меня было нет мобильного телефона?

[Morgan1039]

“When I was little, I didn’t have a mobile telephone,” was not accepted. Reported.

(Nov. 26, 2019)

[Scian4]

Because fifty years ago...

[ivan_leo]

You're really showing your age

[ncolvin]

Is "when I was young..." not acceptable?

[JanisaChatte]

It works too. Added it.

[pla5tica777]

why "when I was little there was no mobile phone" is not acceptable? seemed legit to me...

[piguy3]

The sentence here is about absence of possession in the past, as opposed to non-existence.

I think yours might be a plausible translation were the "у меня" absent from the original.

[mosfet07]

We use plural in such a case (and often a different word order): Когда я была маленькая, мобильных телефонов не было.

(Notice that "было" in "не́ было" is always a clitic - an unstressed word)

[piguy3]

Thanks! Yeah, the lack of existence would normally be plural in English, as well. In singular it strikes me as quite emphatic: a parent yelling at a child or something.

[pla5tica777]

thank you both :)

[TahitiTrotsky]

"When I was small, I had no mobile phone"...refused

[Robert819122]

I put 'telephone' instead of 'phone' and it wasn't accepted?

[piguy3]

If your first language isn't English, then it will be helpful for you to know that "mobile telephone" simply isn't a common expression. To be honest, "mobile phone" is far from common any more either, at least in my part of the U.S., but in my entire life I don't think I've heard "mobile telephone" used to reference the relevant device itself. If your first language is English and that's what you say, well, that's what the report button's there for :)