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- "いろえんぴつでえをかきました。"
"いろえんぴつでえをかきました。"
Translation:I drew a picture with colored pencils.
28 Comments
"Colored pencil" should not be considered a typo for not being plural because that is how the medium is often referred to
The sentence isn't referring to a "colored pencil" as a vague medium. It's referring to actual objects that are called "colored pencils." In English you would refer to a drawing as being drawn in "pencil" and the objects that it was drawn with (such as in the example) as "pencils."
A singular colored pencil is a "colored pencil", which referrs to any non black/grey pencil.
As there's no specific indication that more than one was used, it's a bit harsh to make people guess the right answer. Just like it would be harsh to mark people using plural pencils wrong.
So I happily remembered that duolingo insists on plural for pencils here, but this time wrote "I drew THE picture..." and was rejected. Grrr. Between Japanese and English, certain kinds of swaps should just automatically be accepted.
No, it doesn't. Hence why 'I drew a picture with a coloured pencil' should be accepted.
575
That just doesn't have the sense of being a medium to me -- it sounds like you used only one coloured pencil. To me the closest translation is, "I drew a picture in colour(ed/ing) pencil."
In Japanese differentiating plurals is optional. The main way to get across the concept of plurality in Japanese that I know of is to use 幾つかの～・いくつかの～、or its variants, say, 何本かの～・なんぼんかの～ in this case . . .
でえ threw me for a loop until I read it out loud. Some kanji would be most appreciated.
I still don't know why でえ was used instead of just で. Can someone explain?
で = particle え = picture (a word)
If you exclude the え then the sentence gets borked (で and を aren't really placed together) and no one knows what you drew with your pencil crayons.
Part of me feels like "pencil crayons" should be an acceptable replacement for "colored pencils", even if it's only one place where the term is used... (colored pencils makes me think of pencils that just have different colors/designs on the outside but are generic gray lead) ;~;
I agree. I'm from Canada and I call them "pencil crayons". Other sentences in Duolingo accept Canadian terms, such as "washroom".
Fortunately, washroom is also an American term. I just wish they would speak more slowly so i can follow the words.
In UK we call them colouring pencils, but I have a feeling I was marked incorrectly for using a singular colouring pencil, which as other commenters agree, seems a little harsh.
This sentence is wrong. いろえんぴつでかきました should translate to: I wrote with coloured pencils/ a coloured pencil. It does not have "drew" or "pictures" in the Japanese sentence. Therefore, it should not be in the English translation.
Oh wait... かきました does refer to "drew". But still nowhere does it make mention of a picture.
Indeed, 描きました（かきました）means "drew". As for picture, picture is 絵（え）
いろ - colour えんぴつ - pencil で - with (particle) え - picture を - object marker (particle) かきました - drew
- 1182
Literally:
(A) colored pencil(s) with picture (I/etc.) drew
..making sense out of it:
With (a) colored pencil(s), a picture, I drew.
e can so easily be lost in a sentence. It seems weird that the concept of a picture is just e. But then again a house is just i-e.
- 788
I put “I drew with a colored pencil” and it got marked as wrong. As I can remember when 「絵を描きます」was introduced, it got freely translated to “I draw”.
