"편지를 쓰는 것은 즐거워요."
Translation:Writing a letter is fun.
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Suspicious that my "is pleasant" was a "wrong word," I grabbed my Korean-English dictionary: "즐겁다 (be) pleasant, happy, delightful, merry, cheerful, joyful." Stupid dictionary missed "fun" entirely. 즐겁지않아요!
your answer should've been correct. 재미있어 would be more commonly used for "fun"
I'm always conflicted on plural/singular translations on this course. On the one hand, there's no 들 particle so there is no explicit plural implied here. On the other hand, it's quite unnatural to talk about general activities in the singular form (Writing letters is fun vs Writing a letter is fun). Is this a difference I'm not used to between 쓰기 and 쓰는 것? Or should both answers be acceptable?
No the difference has nothing to do with that. Mainly because there is no difference in Korean, and the main English sentence should be as you suspect "Writing letters is fun."
-기 and -는 것 are basically the same but are habitually used differently only in certain circumstances. In this case, talking about doing some action, it is more common to use -는 것. This Korean sentence is a good example of it. Another one could be 저한테 피아노를 치는 거 어려워요. = Playing piano is difficult for me.
Adding -기 is the same as making it a gerund but it does feel wrong to say 편지를 쓰기는 즐거워요. I do see it used a lot in titles, like "Chapter 1: Starting a Business" = 사업를 시작하기. It's also paired with certain verbs, like 바라다. 너 도와주기를 바라. = I wish you'd help me. 성공하기를 바랍니다 = I hope you succeed.
Maybe there is a rule with more specificity but in the meantime, try to get a feel for what sounds right. You'll hear it if you watch Korean films or sample dialogues or something.
A couple days ago I got this email: "Thank you for suggesting 'Writing a letter is pleasant.' as a translation for '편지를 쓰는 것은 즐거워요.'. We now accept this translation!" I'm not really crazy about that translation and I wondered why I had pushed it, but I decided to try it when it came up today. But it wasn't accepted. "Correct solution: Writing a letter is fun" again!
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Well, it's a different sentence, isn't it? In the question, the verb is 'to write' and the object is 'a letter'. In your sentence, the verb is 'letter writing' and there is no noun. Yes both sentences have the same meaning, but that doesn't mean they are the same.
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Pretty sure "Letter Writing" is a noun in that person's sentence. A gerund is a noun (generally made from a verb by adding ing), and since that's the section we're in, I believe that translation should have been accepted)
It should be accepted, especially if they would remove the ridiculous capitalization hints from the system.
That's right. 쓰다 means wearing an umbrella, a hat, a pair of glasses, a mask (우산을 쓰다, 모자를 쓰다, 안경을 쓰다, 마스크를 쓰다). So I personally think "Wearing a letter is fun." is a valid translation, although I'm not sure if it will be accepted by moderators.
Too many possibilities that they don't have on the correct-answer list yet.
