"Το παιδί είχε πει ότι ήθελε ζάχαρη"
Translation:The child had said that it wanted sugar
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The it is a replacement for "he" or "she", this is an incorrect translation. Its because technically "it" is a neutral pronoun in English. So they are trying to use a neutral pronoun to mirror the fact that grammatically "child" in greek is a neutral gendered word. This is not how translation is done though, it should be "he" or "she"
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If the gender is unknown: "The child had said they wanted sugar". This isn't accepted but should be.
It's not accepted, mostly because there is a bit of an issue with they. It normally translates to αυτοί, and we don't use it in Greek they way it's used in English, in formal singular. It would be a bit odd to add it, since it doesn't match the Greek sentence. :/
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I'd say it does match the Greek sentence - "they" is more normal as a genderless singular personal pronoun than "it". In that case, no it doesn't correspond to αυτοί, but as we well know, words in different languages don't necessarily have a one-to-one translation to each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
"The singular they had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after plural they. It has been commonly employed in everyday English ever since then, though it has been the target of criticism since the late 19th century. Its use in formal English has become more common with the trend toward gender-neutral language. "
Υes, I am aware of that usage pf the pronoun, however, that is not my point. In Greek, there is no official equivalent for the gender-neutral they, even if it's commonly used in English. We can't add it in the alternatives, mostly because this course is in English, but not for English speakers only. We'd have to add it in pretty much every single gender-neutral sentence, and even if that was possible, we'd have to add it in the hints as well, which might have caused confusion. I don't think it's terribly incorrect to use the pronoun it here and we can't change a whole course structure so that the gender-neutral pronoun fits everywhere. Teaching a language would be close to impossible if we added every possible translation of a word, especially when it's not a word-for-word one.
(I do see your point, but, for the sake of teaching, we have to things about some things twice. :P)
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For most sentences which are third-person and gender isn't specified, Duo will accept either "he" or "she".
For example, "Διαβάζει το βιβλίο" would have both "he reads the book" and "she reads the book" as accepted answers.
Is that the case for this one? (I didn't try.)
Using "it" for a child is quite problematic, as it's the pronoun used for objects that aren't people, and its historic use reflected a view of children as not fully human.
@Phil682961
For example, "Διαβάζει το βιβλίο" would have both "he reads the book" and "she reads the book" as accepted answers. Is that the case for this one? (I didn't try.)
The sentences including the personal pronouns "he/she" have already been included in the incubator and should be marked correct if you give it a shot- in case that's what you asked.
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Great, that is a decent solution. I'll try it out next time this sentence comes up!
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The child had said that it wanted sugar. I don't get who the it in this phrase is
It's been accepted for a long time now. Please, do check your answer for a typo, or perhaps a keyboard mixup. If the problem remains, please send us a screenshot of your marked answer so we can confirm it and report the bug, if there is one.^.^
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My app only provides the option to say 'it'. I've read the comments above and it seems like some people had the option to choose he/she? Calling a child 'it' in English is insulting.
