- Forum >
- Topic: Hebrew >
- "זאת עגבניה מלוחה."
23 Comments
Is "This tomato is salty" not a valid translation? If so, what would need to change in the sentence for it to be correct?
This tomato is salty - would be העגבניה הזו מלוחה it has a slightly different meaning than "this tomato is salty" (both in English and in Hebrew)
This is a common confusion. See the Tips for the "Adj. Intro" skill on the Duolingo website. Study everything under the "Summary of Simple Phrase Structures" heading.
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Introduction-to-adjectives/tips-and-notes
Also, here's a link to the notes for many of the course skills on one web page:
https://www.duome.eu/tips/en/he
120
This is the third time I've gone through this part of the course. In the past, I've found links to tips and notes helpful, because users who access the course through the app have no way of knowing they even exist. Finding links in the comment section has been invaluable, however, the links of yours that i have clicked on all take me to the menu screen, not to the tips and notes. Honestly, repeating this part of the course 3 times now has been helpful, but these links you have posted aren't working for me. Im not sure why. You have appeared agitated in some threads that people don't seem to be using them. This may explain why.
To all, do NOT click the links in rich739183's comment (unless maybe if you use the web version) ! It leads nowhere, it just makes you repeat this lesson from scratch. I don't remember if links were ever useful in Duolingo (on Android) but they are definitely not anymore in December 2020.
- 118
Why am I now being told that tomato only has one yod, when all through food1 it always had two?
- 628
You can spell it either way. The one yod is traditional, and if you have nikkud you have to use one yod. The two yod version is what it called "ktiv maleh" where we add a few letters as a hint for pronunciation to compensate for the missing nikkud.
In this case the extra yod is used as a hint that the nun has a hirik and thus the word is pronounced Ag-vah-ni-yah rather than Ag-van-yah (which is a rather common mispronunciation)
I used two yods this time, and was told it was a "typo" and I should have used one. Other times I have used one yod, and was told that was a typo and I should have used two. I have absolutely no idea when DL expects "עגבניה" to have one yod and when to have two. It almost seems random. :-(
- 628
It's not technically random, but it is effectively random. Duolingo is not some artificial intelligence that understands Hebrew. Instead, it has a list of correct translations that the creators of the tree for a particular language typed in. If for one sentence they typed עגבניה and for another they typed עגבנייה, then that is what you get. It's not Duolingo that is random, it's the people.
- 118
Thanks! That's pretty much what I figured, but if it can be spelled either way, then both should be accepted as fully correct, instead of the double yod suddenly becoming "almost correct" after being the spelling that's initially taught.
- 628
I've taken to ignoring the "almost correct" in Hebrew. It often says that for having (or not having) nikkud on a particular letter, and it trips up on the ktiv haser vs ktiv maleh.
I don't think Duolingo is quite set up for languages with alternate spelling.
- 118
Yeah, that's the other funny thing - the intro to the program says "never use nikkud in your answers", but then marks you "almost correct" when you don't. I had taken to ignoring it too, until I got a sentence that wouldn't let me finish the lesson without using nikkud!
Yoav Nir (synp), I don't think that Duolingo's structure is a good excuse here. As you've already said, it's up to the course creators. They need to create a sufficient and consistent list of correct translations for all exercises.
Just leave out tomatoes altogether since they are part of the nightshade family!
- 118
But green tomato chutney is one of my favourite foods. Imagine the sadness on seeing all those late season unripe tomatoes rotting on the vine. Then picture jars of delicious green tomato chutney. No contest...
"This is a salty tomato" is the same as "this tomato is salty." Both should be counted correct.
- 29
No it's not. And for purposes of general translating to get a general point across it's fine, but how can you understand how a language works & how best to explain yourself (and understand exactly what others are saying) if you don't know how to write the sentences in a way that shows what the difference is. It's annoying but the way one says something can be more than the general gist, or else Shakespeare, et al could just be paraphrased.
