"В душе вода, поэтому там нельзя читать."
Translation:There is water in the shower, that's why one should not read there.
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"There is water in the shower, that's why one should not read in there" is not accepted, but as a native speaker I think it's the same exact thing as the sentence minus the "in" at the end.
I love this course, but this is easily the most frustrating thing about it. I know there are always several ways in which the phrase I've reviewed SO many times can be correct, and yet I have to try to also remember the VERY specific phrase that is the only correct one, according to the lesson. That being said I know the staff probably work hard on sorting this stuff out, but it's incredibly annoying just the same!
I've added that now.
I still think that нельзя is best translated as "cannot". It captures the ambiguity marvellously: "You cannot read in there" may mean that it is impossible, or stupid, or immoral, or illegal—the listener is expected to get your implication from context and common sense.
I love examples like this. Just absurd enough to be interesting, but not so absurd that it doesn't make sense. Also, I'd love to be able to read in the shower.
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It sounds incorrect. В душе́ вода... -- There is water in the soul...
Correct variant is: В ду́ше (in the shower) вода, поэтому там нельзя читать.
How "forceful" is the word нельзя?
I thought it meant "you cannot," i.e., "it is impossible" or "it is forbidden"—but apparently it can mean "you can if you really want to, but it's probably not a good idea"?
It is about as forceful as a generic "you cannot do such-and-such", and about as vague. That is, with an imperfective verb it can mean that something is impossible, forbidden or "wrong".
- Нельзя жить в такой дыре = You cannot live is such hellhole. (probably just wrong)
- Нельзя находиться в двух местах одновременно. = You cannot be in two places at once. (impossible)
- Здесь нельзя останавливаться. = You cannot stop here. (forbidden, wrong or bad)
With perfective verbs it usually has a more specific interpretation: a certain "result", a certain stage of some action is impossible to achieve:
- Нельзя найти то, чего нет. = You cannot find something that isn't there. (impossible)
- На такую зарплату нельзя прожить. = You cannot get by with such salary. (maybe exaggerated, maybe objective)
- Здесь нельзя остановиться. = You cannot stop here. (most likely, it would be extremely hard/impossilbe)
We normally use imperfective verbs when it is about permission. Just remember that imperfective verbs have several interpretations (e.g., process).
Be aware that when there are several "wrong" repeated or repeatable actions ("you cannot come to work and get drunk right away") either imperfective or perfective can be used. In general, I am not ready to come up with a rule here. More examples are needed :)
If you are going to do something and ask for permission with можно, use perfectives. But if you are not going to do it any time soon, ask with an imperfective ^_^.
My Russian landlady used Нельзя! to say No! to a misbehaving child. Is that common?
Yeah. She is telling the child that it is bad to do that, so they should not.
It all depends on the context. In this case it would translate as "you probably shouldn't ". If for example you say " здесь нельзя курить" it woild be " it is forbidden to smoke here". I can't think of an example where it would mean "impossible " though.
impossible : В вакуме нельзя дышать " здесь нельзя курить" - "it is not allowed to smoke here" . You can if you want :)
Someone said - you can not smoke here - and you should not and you would not, not because you could not but because you may not since you must not as one meant to say - your are not allowed to... , but all you understood - it is forbidden to...
Honestly, this one of the stranger utterances contrived by Duolingo...
Russian speaker here. Got confused at the listening exercise, it sounds like "there is water in the soul, that's why you can't read there"
my dream is to have a waterproof pen and paper so i don't forget my shower thoughts
They have already invented a plastic shower liner with clear pouches that you put your electronics in, so that you can still post on fb while washing your armpits
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To polish DL's algorithm, it should not treat the reversal of the " 's" and the "is" as a "typo"("There's water in the shower, that is why..." is at least as correct, and typo-free, as the recommended translation!)
It is, of course, a good translation. Clicking Report let's them see it so they can add it. It's hard for them to get all possible correct translations and that's how we help them do that.
As i am no English native speaker, should "there is water in the shower, hence one should not read there" be accepted? (It is not accepted right now)
hence, therefore and thus should be accepted but are not, this sentence has 10+ possible answers and no one even thought about them, that is one of the minuses of this particular course.
I wrote "There is water in the soul, that is why one cannot read there." I knew that it had to be wrong, because it made no sense :P I completely forgot about the word "душ"! I see now that the only difference between the prepositional forms of "душ" and "душа" is the stress.
because it makes no sense contextually. why would you not be able to read inside a soul due to water? it clearly means the shower
this question is stupid, there's 5000 ways of phrasing it and most of them are not accepted
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LOL it sounds "в душE вода" - "water is in the soul". It must be "в дУше вода". I've reported that.
This is a really weird translation. Better would be: "There's water in the shower, so/therefore you shouldn't read there."
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"There is water in the shower, that's why reading is not allowed there." - this answer is not accepted but it is a natural English translation that is close to word for word.
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“There is water in the shower which is why one should not read there” SHOULD BE ACCEPTED. What’s going on??
Нельзя +imperfective verb=impossible Нельзя + perfective verb = it is forbidden
Oh, that's what my Russian tutor taught me, too. Can you please explain how it is supposed to be conjugated?
Googling "нельзя курить" gives 620.000 results, while "нельзя покурить" gives around 3.000
Does "should not" really mean "нельзя"? It's confusing. On https://context.reverso.net it means "не должен".
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I read most books on cellphone. There are waterproof phones now. Sooo this isn't really true anymore.
This surreal sentence is one of Duolingo 's finest creations, along with "This is not my milk" and "These are not women". And the sublime, already mentioned, "Get off my cat". :)
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Написал There is water in the shower, that's why reading is not allowed there и тоже не приняло.
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water - неисчисляемое существительное, поэтому неопределенный артикль перед ним является ошибкой.
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Вообще глаз замылился. Смотрел-смотрел в чем разница написания и так и не увидел. Спасибо.
hands down the dumbest and most useless sentence ever provided by any language learning program in the history of the world. Great hob duolingo, just when I think your system has reached the pinnacle of absurdity you manage to bring it to new heights...
hands down the dumbest and most useless sentence ever provided by any language learning program in the history of the world. Great job duolingo, just when I think your system has reached the pinnacle of absurdity you manage to bring it to new heights...
I wish there weren't so many nonsensical or absurd sentences in the course.
