"Happiness is the key to success."

Translation: Hạnh phúc là chìa khoá của thành công.

[damo1089]

shouldn't happiness be nominalised with sự?

[Huy_Ngo]

No. It sounds unnatural. In this case, you can omit sự. I'm not sure about the rule, but sự never goes with hạnh phúc. To nominalize hạnh phúc, you say niềm hạnh phúc. However, it does not fit this case.
The word thành công in this case can be nominalize with sự, but can also be omitted.

[StewartMM]

That may be true, but sự hạnh phúc is suggested by the hints, which isn't helpful at all.

[KflHZ]

We've learned sự is the way to nominalize other words and we've also learned that it's not always necessary. Is there ever a time when it is absolutely necessary or might we assume that sự is merely an outmoded formality that is most often used in writing but hardly ever in normal conversation?

[damo1089]

Thanks :)

[StewartMM]

Why no 'cái' in front of 'chìa khoá'?

[Stephen521061]

Same question, got marked wrong for the given answer plus cái.

[WonderWoma23572]

Please correct the su hanh phuc hint.

[JeffreyChi776191]

I note that this course does not review and correct errors. Some translations in english are awkward like the use of word gift but the same sentence with gift is repeated over and over again. If you ever meet someone on the street saying I gift you your lunch then the person is ether studying with this course or an instructor here.A translation in an earlier exercise of papers in Vietnamese into newspapers had been brought quite some time back but nothing has been done.

[Seth853809]

I wrote both sự hạnh phúc and sự thành công, and was counted wrong. I see below Huy_Ngo says sự hành phúc sounds unnatural and is never used. If so, it should be removed from drop-down hints for happiness. I know sự thành công is used often in this course, so that should be accepted, I think.

[SakuKaarak]

The phrase should not need "của". Atleast if you check the definition for "chìa khóa" and it's examples. There is no "của" in the phrase "chìa khoá thành công".

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/ch%C3%ACa_kho%C3%A1

[KflHZ]

I'm assuming this is some kind of Vietnamese proverb, and not necessarily one of the random sentences this program comes up with, or else why would sự not be used and why the use of của?

[KflHZ]

Is anyone going to address the problems raised about this particular lesson? Why is using sự wrong when the drop down hints promote it? Why is của used? Why no classified for "the key"? Are there grammar rules in play that we are not being properly taught? (Such as someone below saying hạnh phúc is never used with sự) It's obvious this is not a literal translation - which would be something like '(being) happy is (the) key of succeeding' I asked before and I'll ask again - is this a well known Vietnamese proverb?

[David220118]

From what I can tell, this sentence needs to be written verbatim or it will not be accepted with even the slightest variation.