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- "The children eat the apple."
"The children eat the apple."
Translation:Những đứa trẻ ăn táo.
36 Comments
Why is "nhũng" used here instead of "các"? My understanding is the former is for inanimate objects and the latter is for people and animals. Thanks
I believe it has nothing to do with that. It's just what sounds better, and only listening and reading will give us this sense.
This is why I disagree with the convention in these lessons that the unqualified Vietnamese nouns are translated as "the [noun]". When Vietnamese people say "Những đứa trẻ ăn táo" they clearly mean that the children are eating apple, not that they are necessarily eating that same single apple. The English translation offered here misunderstands the intentional ambiguity of the Vietnamese and constrains the meaning more than the English requires with its uncareful translation.
In English "The children eat the apple" normally means plural children eat a singular apple, that is, they share one apple. Is this what the Vietnamese means? (Otherwise, "the apple" specifies "apple" as a particular selection among a range of possibilities and says nothing in particular about the number of apples at all.)
Instead of "Các đứa trẻ ăn trái táo." I used "cái" instead of "trái". Why is "trái" used here? I have never seen this word before. Is this another type of qualifier that has not been introduced yet? Thanks.
For fruits, we use "trái" or "quả" instead of "cái". Their function is still the same.
Unlike in English where "apple" means the fruit, táo really means the apple as the species. Trái/quả is the classifier for round objects - you need to use trái táo for the fruits of the apple when counting. And you would you use the classifier cây, you're referring to a plant/stick/rod/tree of something instead, i.e. cây táo - apple tree. Cái is a nonspecific classifier, used for those that do not have any specific classifier. But especially since táo can be used with many classifiers it is not really a good fit.
Lastly it can be used with other classifiers as a focus marker, like, cái trái táo này = this particular apple fruit. You can even drop the word for apple altogether: cái trái này - this very fruit.
No one says, "The children are eating apple" unless they are talking about different kinds of pies. If each of a bunch of kids is munching on an apple, the general statement is, "The children are eating apples."
Southern vietnamese qualifier for fruits, they use it in place of quả.
I can't seem to understand when you have to use for plural Những or các, I can't seem to manage to find the relation to it! Could any of you pelase explain? Thanks alot
các is a pluraliser, same as nhũng, so các đứa trẻ means children. Duo likes to put 'the' in front of everything.
You've noticed, too. I sometimes think they equate "the" with the French "le".
Both are correct and interchangeable. They just use what it sounds better for them. I guess it practice, but I'd you use the other you will sound weird but not incorrect.
"quả" or "trái" are clasiffiers for fruits. Sometimes you can omit it, but you cannot omit it when you talk about the quantity.
"one" and "a"/ "an" are used to indicate the quantity and it means "một", and "the" is used to indicate the specific thing you want to talk about, and "the" is used for both singular and plural.
As this sentence above: "The children eat the apple". (Những đứa trẻ ăn táo), you do not know exactly how many apples the children eat, so you cannot use "một" (a/an/one) here. But in this sentence, it has the article "the" to indicate a specific fruit that children eat, it is "apple" (the apple).
In that case we do not use "the" in English. "The" would only be used if "apple" was selected from a specific or known range of options. Fruit in general is not specific enough to warrant the definite article.
What I don't understand is the English sentence. Isn't "the apple" implying that they are all eating from one only apple (and one specific)?
Shouldn't we say "are eating apples" or "are eating apple"?
I think that's what the Vietnamese sentence means.
I tried with những con (the children) ăn táo but failed... Why?? Please explain this to me...
"Con" mean son or daughter of someone, so we have to use "đứa trẻ or đứa bé" mean for children.
