- Forum >
- Topic: Romanian >
- "Noi și Duo suntem bufnițe de…
37 Comments
I really wish they would stop adding "Duo" to sentences. It's incredibly confusing because I always think that it's a Romanian word that I'm just not understanding for some reason. Especially in sentences like this where the words are strange in English either way.
My Romanian husband assumed she was saying "Noi si tu suntem bufnite de noapte". If a Romanian who's first language is Romanian doesn't get it, how is a non-native speaker?! Very frustrating indeed!
No chance to get it for me at the first time, I listened like 5 times in slow motion
966
oh good! I thought it was just me. I have a hard enough time understanding the voice half the time anyway!
In Romanian capital letters are only uses for names of people, countries, places etc and at the beginning of a sentence. That would be the hint that "Duo" must be a Name of some sort.
This doesn't work as we are commenting about a sentence we are listening to so can't see any capital letter!
- 297
^Exactly, I heard "doua" and assumed I didn't quite understand the sentence yet; I was sure it was "doua" since this was in the plurals lesson and a lot of the sentences are in the "one thing, two things" format.
- 162
Yup, I heard "două" then "doi" then "tu" then două again, then thought before suntem this doesn't make sense... So figured Duo (luckily correct)
- 115
The sentence was incorrect, grammatically. You cannot say Duo and us. It has to be Duo and we are night owls.
- 391
Owch! The English grammar here hurts. It has to be "Duo and we" or "We and Duo" as these are the subjects of the sentence. "Us" is an object pronoun so is completely wrong.
I am definitely NOT a night owl, and heard "nopte" instead of "noapte". Actually, the recorded voice is very artificial, in particular for the stress.
Weirdly, due a certain notion of etiquette, English grammar requires that the first person pronoun ("I" or "we") must follow the third and/or second persons in this kind of construction, unless something that is a matter of shame. "Pete and I created this masterpiece." "Pete and I had coffee." "Pete and I are night owls." BUT: "I and Peter committed this crime, your honor."
Romanian insists that we put the first person pronoun first. The difference at hand is the point here.
- 238
That is interesting, I was not aware of the word order changing depending on shame.
It seems to me that most people in the UK these days would say “Me and Peter committed the crime” which I think is wrong but I seem to be in a minority. The funny thing is “I and Peter” sounds wrong so I would say “Peter and I”. I think the people who say “Me and peter” would be happy with “Duo and us” rather than “Duo and we”. It is a matter of whether the phrase is the subject or object of the sentence.
Returning to the original sentence, consider this: “Us are night owls” sounds very wrong, everyone would say “We are night owls". Including the words “and Duo” in the sentence should not change the “we” into “us”. So I would say that you are correct to say we should use “we”.
Sorry to be so pedantic!
- 297
This doesn't always work, but a good rule of thumb for saying "I" or "me" in a sentence is to take out the other subject of the sentence. For example, take the phrase "He and [I/me] went to the store." If you take out the third-person pronoun, you make the sentence either "I went to the store" or "Me went to the store," so here you would say "He and I went to the store." In the sentence "What about him and [I/me]?" you can do the same thing: "What about me?" works, and "What about I?" doesn't.
Of course, this doesn't really matter in colloquial language. Plenty of people say "Me and him did this," for instance. I think it's because it's considered more polite to put someone else in the sentence first, listing subjects or objects in such a way that you (the first-person pronoun) comes last.
Coo! We're getting worried about this, aren't we? I think that if you're going to be wrong, it's better to be spectacularly wrong that wrong in a boring, mediocre way. How about Night owls is us and Duo?
You can say "Night owls is us and Duo" it means that we are with Duo a group called night Owls or it is a house where we are living or a yacht we hired or something! It's colloquial and not formal!
"Duo and us are night owls". Glad to see your English grammar is spot on, Duolingo
- 115
People who speak American English have put their case. People who speak the Queen's English would say more correctly "Duo is a night owl and so are we.
- 172
Incorrect. "Us are" is a basic English mistake, no matter whether you're in the majority of English speakers, or the small minority who still live in England.
I think if you look at the relationship more carefully you will find that our answers are informing the google translation tool. At least that was the case at one stage...
i like that "sunt" descendant, Romance is such an interesting decider on keeping Latin.
"Duo and us" is colloquial English, but "Duo and we" is correct formal English.
It absolutely is. It's not often used and it sounds weird, but in formal English you always use subject pronouns in the subject of the sentence. We are night owls. We (and Duo) are night owls.
That said, if you don't want to sound like a robot, in colloquial English you'd use "Duo and us" or just rephrase the sentence altogether. "We and Duo" is awkward English, but it is correct English.
