"I don't like mint very much."
Translation:ミントはあまり好きではありません。
35 Comments
Is it just me or do we keep switching back and forth from using the Kanji for 好きback to すき too much?
Just in general, this course is absolutely atrocious with how they handle kanji.
I can't believe how bad it is. I understand it's a beta, but I'm a software engineer and this is not beta quality software. It seems like no one put any thought into handling kanji.
The kanji version of a sentence should be the canonical version for every sentence and the kana versions could have been mostly automated with occasional human intervention when there is ambiguity. Instead they've often chosen to store the kana version as the primary sentence, which is a much lossier (lower fidelity) system and it's much harder to automatically convert them to kanji. As a result Duolingo is now dependent on massive human intervention to add all the kanji versions all over again in the form of user reports by the users choosing to use IME/keyboard entry.
The IME entry is completely basically broken. I still insist on using it because I think using the word bank gives you zero production ability, but the complete randomness of when they accept kanji means I'm constantly being marked wrong when I should be right and it takes me about 300% as long to get through my daily practice as it should.
Make a thread out of this maybe someone will listen. This is just too annoying.
On a sidenote though the kanji to hiragana conversion is not unique (one kanji can have multiple kana readings) so basicially you would need a framework where they put in the kanji answers and then the reading for each kanji that appears in that sentence. You cant just accept all possible reading combinations from a dictionary because it is actually likley that a user puts in a wrong kanji reading as a wrong answer and you would wanna mark these as wrong. But then you have the problem that each time a new user answer is marked as "should be correct" they would have to convert it into kanji and then add the reading. So its probably too hard with the limited ressourses that they have and this course is just doomed.
The 'ha' after ミントis the subject marker, and the "ha" in では kind of means "at least". The whole sentence translates to "as for mint, (at least) I don't like it much". So for this sentence both of them are needed.
701
じゃない is a verbal form of ではない, plain form of ではありません. So basically they are the same. Just saying 好きありません is not correct.
- 266
So this time the kanji 好 is considered wrong? Great job duolingo.
Wouldn't also the particle が make more sense after ミント?
Since it would be 私はミントがあまり好きではありません
は is usually used about twice as much as が as it's used for talking about things in general. が beats は when it comes to mint. I suppose this is because many Japanese don't know what mint tastes like very well and so might be more likely to say this about actually having tried it rather than as a general topic. It's supposedly popular as a garden plant though for its fragrance. English speakers' understanding though is probably closer to the opposite sense?
- 701
好きじゃないです is just equivalent to 好きではありません. It does not make more sense or less. Comparatively 好きじゃないです is more verbal, casual and softer. It is commonly used by Japanese but we also need to acknowledge that it is not standard Japanese in a strict sense. Some people does not agree that ない+です is grammatically correct.
This is far too much to just say I don't like mint. What happened to just saying きらい or 好きじゃない？
i have three questions:
(1) What is the kanji for あまり? i can only find definitions for kanji that mean "remainder" or "surplus" (余り,衍,贏,剩) which isn't exactly intuitive in English usage. even if we call it "extra"...
Let me try breaking this down myself, using Niko's notes on particles.... mint (subject) extra+affection (cause+contrast) does not exist. "an extra affection for mint does not exist (but a slight dislike might)."
that's not quite close enough, imo. (2) Should i memorize "x あまひ好き" as "like x very much" or (3) does では strongly affect the meaning of the sentence (ie what is the difference in meaning if i just used で)?
- 701
(1) The corresponding Kanji is 余り. However in this usage it is not usually written in Kanji. According to the dictionary the applicable explanation is 度を越しているようす i.e. the state of exceeding moderation.
(2) The way I memorize it is あまり…ない; We can insert any adjective or verb in the middle and ない reminds me of the negative form.
(3) では is a structural part and up to here you should be able to understand 好きです and 好きではありません.
For (1) you have a remainder, surplus, or extra when you have too much. 余りにも~ is the closest translation I have for too (much )~ -- better than ~過ぎ, say. I don't like mint too much. Liking something is always too much traditionally in this culture -- it's like a weakness.
What he said on (2).
For (3) であります・せん I've only seen it in writing, usually wishing something (happiness or health, say) comes to greet you. は or も, not the case particles but binding particles when they follow other particles like this, are required to make whatever it follows predicate (connect directly rather than indirectly to) the verb. で (or に say) doesn't do this on its own . . .
The kanjis are all messed up in this course. 好き Should be perfect in this case, and yet it gets rejected in favor of すき
- 474
Is 好きではあまりありません a strange way of saying it? Was marked wrong, just curious how the particles play out and if it's wrong / strange / or just not accepted
You put the amari in between the two parts that go together: dewa arimasen
Is ミントがあまり好きではありません。 or ミントはあまり好きではありません。 better to use in terms of which is more common?
So i used とても instead of あまり and was marked wrong,i think only あまり is used with negative sentences ?
- 701
Not necessarily but it would have other meaning. IMHO we better stick with negative first so we can remember the pattern.
余りミントは好きではありません。It was marked wrong, but I swear everyone around here says it like that. It's awfully catchy . . .
I assume it's not possible to use sukanaku in such a construct and use only Amari.
The other way to say that is: ミントは少ししか好きではありません。It's more positive though. You'd probably have to change it a bit to use sukunaku, maybe something like: ミントの好みが少なく...
i keep bumping into questions where the correct answer isn't available the 好き and ん aren't available to use in the answer.
