"Ela cozinha mal."

Translation: She cooks badly.

[jonthedrummer]

So just to clarify

"She hardly ever cooks" = "Ela mal cozinha"
"She cooks badly" = "Ela cozinha mal"

?

[Danmoller]

Yes!

[makar]

Could it also be she cooks bad?

[Paulie-Waulie]

In Australia, in colloquial speech, "She cooks bad" would be totally acceptable. We always drop the "-ly" from adverbs. But I think Duolingo expects "standard" English.

[kcmurphy]

That's not "proper English"--which is what Duolingo wants--and "mal" means "badly" (adverb) whereas "mau" is "bad" (adjective).

[Whirrun]

I don't think so, since this is the 'adverbs' section.

[Jackie-da-China]

she cooks barely???

[frozen3v0lution]

Maybe "she barely cooks" (the other way isn't proper english)

[Anders91]

Just got a wrong answer for "She barely cooks". That is probably "Ela mal cozinha"

[Danmoller]

That's it. Mostly it means "badly" when placed after the element it relates to. (Cozinha mal).

And "barely" when it's placed before (mal cozinha)

[stt02061]

Hi danmoller! When you are saying ''barely'' you mean ''She barely knows how to cook''? Or ''She barely cooks. Usually she eats outside''?

[Danmoller]

Ela mal cozinha = She barely cooks (Usually eats outside)
Ela cozinha mal = She cooks badly

[stt02061]

Obrigada! :)

[frozen3v0lution]

The problem you're having is you're using "barely" when the word means "badly".
Also the word order here is "She cooks badly".