"Mon professeur de chinois est un homme."
Translation:My Chinese teacher is a man.
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I think "professor of Chinese" should be correct here, the English is ambiguous as to whether or not Chinese professor is referring to nationality or teaching subject
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I'm pretty sure "professeur de chinois" is someone that teaches Chinese material, and "professeur chinois" is a teacher who comes from China. In English I suppose they would both be "Chinese teacher" but there is a difference between the two statements.
Actually, in spoken English, there is a difference in pronunciation between the two meanings of "Chinese teacher." By putting a slightly stronger emphasis on "Chinese," you are referring to a teacher of Chinese language. On the other hand, by putting the slightly stronger emphasis on "teacher," you are referring to a teacher of Chinese nationality. It's subtle, but native speakers would pick up on it easily.
Yes they should have had the English translation as teacher of Chinese to make it clearer. It's also more correct in English.
Confused!should there be liason between 'chinois' and 'est' .Woundn't it be the same as chinoise est
It sounded weird to me too because the Z sound for the liason seemed to be attached to "chinois" instead of to "est" and then there was no liason between "est" and "un" which is a strange inconsistency. So I would have expected to hear "Mon professeur de chinoi zetunhomme". Google translate has it right.
http://translate.google.com/#fr/en/Mon%20professeur%20de%20chinois%20est%20un%20homme
No liaison after "chinois"
A T liaison after est
Mon professeur de chinoi(s) est-T-un homme
Thank you. I looked at the forbidden liasons on about.com and wasn't sure. I guess that this one falls under names? http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-f.htm
Note that if you mark the liaison after "chinois", you get "chinoiZ" which is really confusing vs "chinoise".
Now, for "est-T-un", please take a look at this other page (paragraph III): http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm
So in this sentence the first liaison is forbidden and the other one is optional. Got it. Thank you again.
On doit accepter "My teacher is a chinese man". à mon avis, c'est correct aussi.
Non, car vous avez changé le sens de la phrase.
Ce que vous proposez est la traduction de "Mon professeur est un Chinois". Comme vous pouvez le voir, rien ne dit qu'il enseigne la langue chinoise, de même que dans "My Chinese teacher is a man/Mon professeur de chinois est un homme", vous ne connaissez pas l'origine du professeur en question.
The trick is that not everybody want to say "ma professeur" if the teacher is a 'she'. Because it sounds weird, and because (for whatever obscure reason) that noun has not been feminized, for example in "la professeuse" (think about un serveur/une serveuse = waiter/waitress).
Some activists will use "ma professeure", just adding a (mute!) -e at the end, and "une auteure" (female author), to clearly mark the fact that although these occupations were massively masculine a long time ago, it needs to be made official that nowadays not only women do have fee access to these professions, but they now form a huge majority (like judges - un juge/une juge, and lawyers (un avocat-une avocate).
Yes, Will: I got it correct by literally translating it, but is the professor a Chinese person, or a person who teaches Chinese? No language is perfect--call it the ambiguity uncertainty principle?
Languages are masculine nouns "le français, l'anglais, le chinois...".
"Chinois, chinoise, chinois, chinoises" is an adjective which can qualify any noun, including "la langue chinoise".
"Un Chinois, une Chinoise, des Chinois, des Chinoises" is the noun given to Chinese people.