81 Comments
Thank you for that! I was struggling to come up with something relatable.
"At home everyone is king" -- is a variation on "king of his castle" and DL accepts it.
But 'their' is normaly used in English to refer to an indefinite singular person (in the 3rd person of course)
"Their" is incorrect in English as a singular pronoun. People use it in spoken English often to avoid specifying a gender, and would be easily understood, but grammatically, it's incorrect. And in written English it's a big no-no. Technically you should either make everything plural to agree, specify a gender, or default to the male singular pronoun.
Actually that's old fashioned. Many professional editors (like me) accept singular they in situations where "he or she" is impractical.
Their is no longer incorrect in English, according to American Heritage Dictionary and Associated Press stylebook.
It is no longer incorrect in English style manuals and certainly not a big no-no to use "their." Please check the updated versions of American style manuals, such as the one published by Associated Press. It is considered now a perfectly acceptable third person singular pronoun to get around the gender-specific problem.
I was a little upset that "In his own home everyone is king" was marked as wrong.
I thought it was either englishman's or gentleman's home is his castle. Since I'm Australian we probably used both saying since only some came from England.
I think it is a good way to get some perspective, that they give us the literrally translation in each word. And i agree with some of you, literally translation shoulnd't be marked as correct, otherwise we would never learn it... But it's so difficult for me because i'm not native english speaking!!! I don't know any of the idioms! Duolingo doesn't have spanish-italian get :( i just play the lesson several times until i get all of them...
I translated this as "At his (or her, not quite sure) home everyone is king." Is this wrong?
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I respectfully disagree. Idioms are hard and one either knows them or not. If people here are learning, there is a high probability that they do not know them. The system could accept a literal translation and then display the equivalent saying in the other language, just to cut students some slack.
You are not going to learn the idioms if the literal meaning is accepted. But I agree that Duolingo could do a better job explaining the meaning of idioms, preferably before testing.
Okay but some literal translations are allowed whilst others aren't there needs to be a sense of continuity.
I disagree, especially if the literal translation gives essentially the same meaning. The translation Flamingo used is now accepted (I just did it). These discussions are very useful; for example I learned subtle but important differences between two accepted answers ("buona fortuna" and "in bocca al lupo") from a native Italian.
Yes, it's wrong. The idiom means that each person is the king at his (her) own home, not that any person is the king at another person's home.
Shouldn't it be "A la sua casa," isn't that what we learned in the possessives lesson?
One possible solution was "In his house everyone is king." If this is so, shouldn't "At his house everyone is king." also be correct?
The only way to learn these idioms is to memorize them. There is no logic to them. So this skill set is interesting, but a little bit useless at this point, unless I use it to make flash cards.
Marked wrong for 'every man' even though the correct answer starts "In his home...". I think once you've stated it's 'his' home, you shouldn't mark prople down for assuming we're talking about every 'man'. Why apply modern gender politics to only half the sentence?
DuoLingo's translation looks like a complete different sentence in Italian, with the same kind of meaning" tutto uomo..."
We have here 'A man's home is his castle' but since it sounds sexist nobody says it. I wrote 'A man's house is his castle' and it wasn't accepted. I guess it means 'Everyone's a king in his own house' but does that mean a good thing or is it like saying 'A big fish in a little pond' ? : )
Although I suppose it COULD be taken like you say - after all, a single house is a small kingdom - but I have never heard it used that way. Mostly it is a good thing,
I have never heard this phrase used before, though I understand the translation. Closest I could think of was "to each his own"?
That has a different meaning to me (native speaker), suggesting acceptance of a different opinion. I THINK the meaning intended is that you 'have control of surroundings in your own environment'.
Why isn't "... everyone's a king" (instead of everyone is a king) accepted?
Hello there, my native lenguage is spanish so I use Duolingo to practice more english while I learn some Italian. But I need to tell that I do enjoy the app and the time I spend is worthy. Have a nice day
I put every man is master in his own home and was marked wrong because did not put "a master"
How do I pronounce "ognuno è re" phonetically? I haven't gotten it once and ive listended to the recording a ridiculous number of times. I am starting to get frustrated.
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Finally I had 'every man is a king in his own home accepted'. The essential meaning is the same but I wouldn't generally express the idea quite like this in English. My subtly different attempts using what I would say were all rejected! I am finding it challenging at times having to adapt my English to suit Duolingo's idea of what is correct...!!
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Yes, you are expressing the right idea. There are many ways of expressing the sentiments behind this idea in English e.g. 'a man's home is his castle' doesn't even mention 'king' but it still expresses the same idea...we won't mention sexism here! This is an idiom and Duolingo does not always cope well with idioms.
doesnt accept "everyone is a master in his own home" because it should have been "every man" :/
Duolingo needs to correct its translation. In Italian, the expression doesn't use the word for man. It uses the word for everybody or everyone, so in Italian, the expression translates as "In his own house, everyone is king." Interesting that the English translation has the sexist twist, suggesting that the man is head of his household. The Italian expression does not mean that the man is head of his household; it means that, theoretically, everyone (male or female) has control over his/her own domain. (I have to add that, in English style manuals, such as Associated Press Style Manual, the word "their" is now acceptable as a word to indicate a third person singular pronoun.) But more to the point is, why is Duolingo wasting our time with these antiquated expressions that no one uses anymore. Better to focus on all the bugs in the questions/answer program. Duolingo, are you listening?
I translated "My home is my castle", which is a common English proverb, but DL disagreed. Any views from native speakers?
"a man is king of her house" is DL translation. Come se dice LOL in italiano?
I put: "Every man is king in his own house". It marked it wrong, but gave me the correction as "Every man is king in his own home."
I literally just used the word "house" instead of "home" and it marked me as incorrect...
The use of there, I predict, will eventually become correct English in the proper course of historical usage. But it hasn't happened yet.
Duolingo needs to be a bit more liberal in what it will accept for English translations.
