28 Comments
I'm coming late to this party, but -- for what it's worth -- I don't think that "We do not have enough milk" is a good "main" translation for this exercise, unless it's the only thing that's really "right" from the Czech side.
As others have suggested, I would read "Máme málo mléka" as "We have LITTLE milk," and would expect to see "Nemáme dost mléka" for "We do not have ENOUGH milk."
The fact we have "little" milk doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have "enough." While it might not be much milk, it could be "enough" for the two cups of tea that we're making, for example.
Maybe one of the contributors/volunteers will explain...?
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Máme málo mléka. = We have a little milk. Is this translation also acceptable? .
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Re dsarkarati's question, the DL Czech sentence here means: We have little milk = We do not have much milk.
It does NOT mean: We have a little milk = We have some milk
You have an extra article there. Milk is uncountable noun, thus no indefinite article
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I think for English "We have a little milk" would be OK, it sounds completely natural to me. But either way, how would you actually indicate having some milk, but just a small amount? (edit: removing comment about genitive)
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You are right that "we have a little milk" is a perfectly good and natural English sentence. However, it is NOT what the Czech we are given here is saying. See my earlier comment above.
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"a little" though is correct when referring to noncount nouns, such as money, food, time and many others. For example: I have a little time now to help you. (This is a positive statement, meaning I have some time.) I have little time now to help you. (This is a negative statement, meaning I don't have much time.) How would you say, "I have a little milk in the refrigerator," meaning some but not much? Thank you for your very quick and thoughtful comments.
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'I have a little time to help you now' is a positive statement. It means that the help provider has time now and is willing to give up that time. 'I have little time to help you now' is more of a negative statement and suggests that the help giver does not have or is unwilling to give up what little time he may have in order to assist
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After reading the posts, literally, 1.Máme málo mléka > we have little milk. 2. Máme trochu mléka > we have some/a little milk. 3.Nemáme dost mléka > we don't have enough milk. What do you think, am I right here??
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I agree with ion1122. For a positive meaning ("We have a little milk".), "Máme trochu mléka" would be needed.
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I agree to BHBass. But now while repeating my lesson, I translate into I have few milk and again it get refused. But "few" may be not a correct word, is this for countable nouns (e.g. "I count few sheep")?
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The noun "milk" is not countable, so in English you cannot say "I have few milk". It must be "I have little milk", or, less formally. "I don't have much milk".
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Thank you Ion, I must have done that wrong already more times, silly me :-[
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I just looked back and saw that the translation for we dont have enough wine is nemame dost vina so how is that sentence different from this one?
For this sentence, "Nemáme dost mléka" is one of the acceptable translations.
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I wonder if the intonation when speaking the sentence shows the difference in meaning. ??
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Ion should look up the proper use of "little" vs "a little" for uncountable nouns like water or milk. Both are correct and mean (slightly) different things. Which one corresponds to the meaning that the author of the Czech sentence had in mind I cannot tell.
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If you read this page more carefully, you will see that ion is well aware of the distinction between "little" and "a little", and that both can be correctly used with uncountable nouns. See for example ion's first comment on this page (The second comment from the top).
As for the Czech, the meaning here is "he has little = not much milk".
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After looking at the discussion again. As a native speaker I must say that I would not say I have little milk. That isn't correct. I have a little milk is the correct thing to say and it means I have some milk but not much= I have a little milk.
Which is not what the Czech sentence means and why the official translation has "not enough".
But I do not want to re-ignite the unfortunate discussion in the reverse translation (https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25031552) so I will not continue if any attempt to reignite it appears.
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"I have little X" is perfectly good English. It is a bit more formal/dated than, but means the same as, "I don't have much X."
For example, "I have little time for fools".
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I'm asking for "We have too little milk" to be accepted as a translation. It means we haven't got enough milk - and it is a far closer translation of the Czech words which are here to be translated.
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Because you've also given us, in this section, the words to make a direct Czech translation of "we do not have enough milk" - that would be Nemame dost mleka (plus diacritics), right?
Nemáme dost mléka. and Máme málo mléka. has the same meaning in Czech and both are accepted here.
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Nemáme dost mléka. and Máme málo mléka. have slightly different meaning in Czech.
The first one says you do not have enough to cover the needs, while the latter says you have a low volume of milk (eg. in comparison to what you normally have, but it can still be enough for your needs).
The too is extra and I would use "Máme příliš málo mléka." for that.
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Yes, I understand that the two sentences mean the same in Czech - but in the English version "too little" = "not enough", it's not an intensifying "too" in this case in this case - it's saying there isn't enough milk to spare. So it seems to me that "We have too little milk" is as good a translation of the Czech as "We do not have enough milk" and in fact adds fewer "extra" English words than the latter - and keeps the sense of malo.
