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- "男の子がうみでおよいでいます。"
"男の子がうみでおよいでいます。"
Translation:A boy is swimming in the ocean.
52 Comments
272
That really depends on the person. Syllables per second wise, it is actually a slower language than a lot of other languages.
287
Just out of curiosity, would, "there is a boy swimming in the sea," also be an acceptable interpretation? I had this marked incorrect and am wondering if I should report it or just focus on learning the given translation instead. Thanks! :)
My native language is English, sorry if I sounded more interesting than I actually am haha. I'm a language nerd, though, so that's really fascinating to me to see the connection between dagat and karagatan.
For me, it's not a language thing, it's a geographical thing. I never swam in a sea, so it sounded weird to me that people would swim in a sea. When I went to the beach, we swam in the ocean, and the ocean covers most of the earth's surface, so where else would anyone swim? Now I live near the Sea of Japan, and I've started to realize that there's plenty of places in the world where people are surrounded by seas rather than oceans.
My native language is English, sorry if I sounded more interesting than I actually am haha. I'm a language nerd, though, so that's really fascinating to me to see the connection between dagat and karagatan.
I see. I was just thinking it might be a cultural-geographic thing. Let me just break down the word "karagatan'" a bit, since it's also kinda curious. From the root word "dagat" the /d/ changes to an /r/ (since they're allophones) and the affix "ka- -an" is a special kind of augmentative that gives some kind of a collective quality (think man vs. humanity). Add "sang-" in front of it and you'd have a word that's comparable to the English "the world ocean". A similar construction is used in the word for "universe", "sangkalawakan" (literally, "all of [outer] space").
As for your second point. It's really true for my case. Our islands here are surrounded by seas rather than oceans (except for the eastern shore where some parts can be considered to face the Pacific ocean directly). Hence, I was actually thinking of other cultures which were influenced by their relation with the sea which then influenced their language.
Oh, you do live near the Sea of Japan?! That makes you interesting in my book.
And oh, I think we're all language nerds here in Duolingo. XD It's just the degree that varies, I guess.
Now you got me curious. What's your native tongue and how would you translate this sentence in your language?
Because in my native tongue, it's most naturally translated as "May batang naliligo sa dagat" (There is a child swimming in the sea.) / "May batang naliligo sa karagatan" (There is a child swimming in the ocean.) With our word for ocean (karagatan) being an augmented form of our word for sea (dagat) . Is the opposite true in your native language?
Yes you are correct. 海 means "sea", not "ocean." I think they used "ocean" because the people who do the translating are young and inexperienced.
海 also means "beach". In Japan, if you want to spend the day at the beach, you say 海にいきたい . Swimming in the sea at the beach is called 海水浴 so if you want to go for a swim at the beach, you say 海水浴にいきたい
I know Japanese adults who do not know the difference between a sea and an ocean, and everyone I have ever met calls the Pacific Ocean 海, so I don’t think it’s fair to call the contributors “inexperienced” for their translation choice. “Sea” is a correct translation, but in actual usage “ocean” is also correct.
Relax, IsolaCiao. That's not meant as an insult, but a free pass. When you're young, you get to be inexperienced and make mistakes that are due to being inexperienced. Just like when you're old you get a pass on dressing funny or wearing ugly glasses. It's just the nature of things.
Incidentally, I'm a little concerned about your statement about the Pacific Ocean being called a "sea." The Pacific Ocean IS a sea. "Sea" is a general category of saltwater bodies that includes bays, harbors and oceans. "Ocean" is specific to large bodies of saltwater. But I understand the confusion because there are bodies of water that are big, but not big enough to be called an ocean, so they default to being called "seas," such as the Sea of Japan or the Mediterranean Sea, because there is no term for a medium-sized body of saltwater, which leads people to believe that a sea is a medium-sized body of saltwater. Experience. You'll get there eventually. Until then, enjoy the benefits of your youth, including your free pass :)
When you are saying where an action takes place, you use で and when you say where something exists you use に. In this case, the boy is swimming (an action), so you need で。
The に in 山に登ります (yama ni noborimasu) is serving a different function. It's showing the direction of your movement (towards the top of the mountain).