"Femeia mănâncă un fruct și bea o cafea."
Translation:The woman eats a fruit and drinks a coffee.
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This is the meaning, indeed, but is never used like that in Romanian. You can use ”un fruct” (a fruit as a whole or a piece), ”jumătate de fruct” (a half of fruit), or ”o felie de fruct” (a slice of fruit). This noun has in Romanian a plural form, ”fructe”.
We don't say drinks a coffee in English, it's either she is drinking coffee or she's having a cup of coffee.
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Do you want to say that you are using present continuous as time? Or you contest the article for a coffee?
You should consider the fact you are learning Romanian here. The sentence in Romanian is good and we are currently using this way of saying: un fruct , două fructe (yes, we have a plural form for fruct) and we are drinking o cafea or even două cafele every morning.
We dont't recommend you to use this English translation in your everyday speaking, but it is served here for learning purposes, learners must understand language differences between English and Romanian.
Yes, and there is either a literal translation, which will cause any English speaker to wonder what you are trying to say, of a meaningful translation that is a clear, usually simple sentence. The problem is, I don't want to learn to create an awkward English sentence to then make a literal translation in into Romanian. "The woman is eating a piece of fruit and drinking a cup of coffee," is a good, understandable translation of "Femeia mănâncă un fruct și bea o cafea." "The woman eats a fruit and drinks a coffee." is not. It has nothing to do with understanding language differences. It has to do with being able to communicate in both languages.
Exactly, I expect the sentences to be correct in both languages. I understand why the article is there in Romanian, but it is irritating to have perfectly good English marked as incorrect. Literal translations are rejected in other instances, or they may be impossible to enter in the first place, so it's not even consistent across the course. I also don't particularly care about focusing on the idiosyncrasies of the English language here ("a coffee" is correct in a few others I know).
Drinks "a" milkshake in American English but not "a" coffee. I have never heard anyone say I am drinking "a" coffee in my life.
Different just north of the border then. "a coffee" (meaning "a cup of coffee") is very common here in southern Ontario. When ordering in a restaurant or cafe one orders "a coffee" just as one might order "a milkshake". One might ask a friend "would you like a coffee?" or suggest "Let's go get a coffee." Or comment "I really need a coffee right now!" I am very surprised that people find this strange. It is quite ordinary here.
these are all used in American English but specifically "drink(ing) a coffee" sounds weird
I keep getting marked wrong because of my translation into English as I keep forgetting to put 'a'... it's so frustrating. This is because Duolingo get volunteers to translate for them, and of course they're mostly Romanians who themselves use 'a' before many things, so it's understandable why it's happening.
And I'm not complaining as such because I'm very happy to have this option. I've been married to a Romanian woman for 18 years and I've lived in Bucharest for 11 years, and the last time I tried learning Romanian with a course there was virtually nothing to help me.
So, I'm grateful for Duolingo, still it is frustrating at times and I'm venting more than whinging.
But so many of the English translations are NOT commonly used in English.
I put... 'the woman eats a fruit (even though we don't really say that either) and drinks coffee' but I was wrong AGAIN.
Another frustrating one is I keep seeing questions phrased as statements 'you do not eat breakfast'.
But I will learn to live with it as it's still helping me a lot.
This sounds so unnatural in English. We'd say "the woman eats a PIECE of fruit",
That would be fine if it also said "drinks coffee" and the intent is to refer to a habitual action e.g. "Every morning the woman eats fruit and drinks coffee." Even that context would also permit "a fruit . . . a coffee" to indicate she has one of each and no more.
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'a piece of fruit' is definitely the way to say it in the North of England. 'a fruit' is a bit off
"A coffee" is fine but "a fruit"? It sounds pretty weird in English, but that is the correct translation...
English is my native language and "the woman eats a fruit" sounds completely natural to me, especially with the parallel of "drinks a coffee". I would only use "piece of fruit" when referring to fruit that was cut up into slices or cubes--not for referring to a whole apple or banana or similar fruit. Because that is a fruit, not a piece of one.
