"我的家人最近不错。"
Translation:My family has been pretty good recently.
179 Comments
It is better to say you are doing pretty "well" in English, rather than "good". Superman does good, we do well. Please correct this.
It's frustrating to try guess when the answer for 不错 is "not bad" and when it's "been good".
Consistent translations should be top priority.
You're right and the teams try do their best, contributors and mods work voluntary for free and they usually have some other daily job and this is more of a hobby. And the sheer amount of reports take quite a bit of time, but slowly the courses turn into more consistent ones.
The funny thing is, I used 'pretty good' a few minutes ago and I got wrong. I used 'not bad' now and I still got it wrong. Duo is such a troll.
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Should we need to have a damn adding "pretty" for this? I mean, 我的家人最近不错 has nothing related with the word 很 there anyway.
The real translation should be "not bad," so I think they try to get as close to it as possible with "pretty good" - since doing good is not the same as not bad. One is not well just because they aren't horrible.
From a prescriptive linguistics point of view you're right, but "I'm doing pretty good" is said very often by native english speakers (me).
Both are acceptable when actually speaking.
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With respect " 'pretty' good" is more american than english. English more commonly would use 'not bad' among others. Indeed americans "do (pretty) good" whereas we english "do (quite) well".
I said "My family's been good lately", and it said I was wrong and suggested "My family has been good lately"
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I continue to report, but it seems that it doesn't do any good. Nothing gets corrected on this site.
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DL in general doesn't support contractions with arbitrary nouns, only with pronouns. I think this is a technical limitation, as it could expand the number of possible answers enormously in some cases.
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I reported in this sequence because I used "pretty good" for 不错 in this answer (marked right, 5-14-19), but it was marked wrong...exact same syntax...in immediately previous quiz question. DL inconsistency! :)
There are three things with a couple of different translations of this sentence. Firstly, "is" refers to present tense, while "recently" refers to past tense; you should not use more than one tense in a single phrase. Secondly, "good" is a colloquialism, whereas "well" is a better translation of a person's health. Thirdly, could the grammerarians out there tell me whether "family" is singular (and uses "is/has") or plural (and uses "are/have"); my answer "my family have been good recently" was given wrong and the 'correct translation' was "my family has been good recently."
Found on Google "While family refers to a group of people, it refers to the group of people as a single unit, or collection. Nouns like this are called collective nouns, and in American English, collective nouns take singular verbs. (In British English, many collective nouns can also take plural verbs.)" My conclusion: Duolingo should accept both the singular and the plural.
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You are touching on what I believe is an issue between England native speakers and american so called english. These courses would have (should have?) been offered as chinese for english speakers and separately offer chinese for american speakers. As it is the american grammar and spelling dominates as well as the major problem of syntax (order of words to affect meaning). This is not going to be corrected ad I am quite sure that the translators the chinese guys in this case all know american, NOT native english. We just have to be careful when we are in acsituation of a chinese person speaking to us while we are still learning and we cant understand them because the american translation is in our heads. Because of this may I recommend making up your oen fladh cards where you can put the native english translation to them or else there is a danger that we can be taught chinese well, but at the expense of being taught terrible english too!
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Seriously, I don't think the English can claim credit for speaking correct English and anyone else is wrong! English borrows from so many languages, and evolves as do most, with usage. I am Australian and not willing to throw insults because someone uses the language differently to me. The point is we get the meaning of the Chinese. We are learning and it is enjoyable.
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No one is throwing insults. I'm studying Portuguese and I don't expect the Brazilian version to be the same. I also study Chinese offered here but don't expect to use it in those areas where cantonese dominates as is the case for the variations in spanish I'm concurrently studying to be same in Mexico as Spain. So by your comment, do you English is the same around the world? Of course not. American differs from English enormously. In Duo here, it is a great app but so much of the confusion has been with the "English" translations not the target language for learning, and particularly for native English speakers (of England) we especially need to be on guard against being de-briefed of our own language while learning the target language. This is about doing our best in what is double translation from the target language to American, and then to English to get the sense so it's a problem we often have difficulty with when we are marked wrongly for good English grammar and can only move through the course by typing in or selecting word files that only allow American grammar to be accepted. Like the portuguese comparisons I made earlier, the differences are such that brazilian Portuguese courses are out there as a separate language to learn yet we don't see the same recognition between the different English spoken.
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I prefer to learn the English as most spoken by Mandarin speakers who speak English. English language evolved in contact with Chinese languages. So called American English, spoken version, has an efficiency that is born of the experience of communicating with people of varied backgrounds. Through contact with stereotypical language users like French in Paris and Mandarin in Beijing, I've come to notice how flexible English speakers like myself are. When people speak to me in English -- often as a second language, where I live in multicultural California and in foreign countries I visit, I am happy to accept any form of English they use as long as I can understand them. Moreover, I even adjust my English to make myself better understood to them. In India for instance, I speak fluent Punjabi and Hindi, but if someone wants to speak in English I don't go bolting forward with my home American dialect; I compromise to a form of English that they understand more easily. None of this in anyway precludes my ability to use an idealized form of English in my written communication and formal speech. So, when I am learning a foreign language I also take note of a sort of auxiliary language -- the English of speakers of that foreign language -- which I then use as a support on my journey towards functioning in that foreign language. For example, I go to China and I try to say something ideally in Mandarin, but when that fails I fall back on Chinese-English. Sometimes these auxiliary languages more resemble UK English, sometimes more American, and sometimes they involve quirky things that are literal translations from the foreign language. The point is to notice them, not correct them. I have noticed native Mandarin speakers saying "pretty good," so when I speak English to them I'm going to say "pretty good" rather than potentially confuse them with "quite well"!
Long ago, I was employed to teach English to native Spanish speakers. I had to use a British English textbook. It was making me teach phrases like "What have you got?" which was so bizarre because as an American I would say "What do you have?" The Spanish speakers understand, 'What do you eat? What do you drink? What do you do?," but then they get to the verb "have" and suddenly this weirdness, "What have you got?" I like Chinese Pidgin: "You have what?" Simple, ha!
Hear hear. Let me who is without sin... The original message is as "fladh" (see above) as my "so-called" English . Yes we speak a different dialect. Get over it!
I totally agree. And I see no option to report an issue with the English translation.
Some correct American English phrases include: "My health is good." "My family life is good." Etc. And, I do not expect British English to correctly say, "My family life is well." As to the point at issue, 'We are doing good' versus 'We are doing well,' I would say that both are correct and have a subtle difference of meaning: 'We are doing good' is a judgment about the current state of the group being good, whereas 'We are doing well,' means that the group's efforts have been successful.
Using has is good english. Your translation was ok in meaning but nobody says my family have been good, unless you are talking about a member of your family , like " Some of my family have been good, some not so good."
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Although in strict usage "good" is an adjective ("My family is good") and "well" (as used here) is an adverb ("My family is doing well", with "well" modifying the verb), these words are interchangeable in everyday speech in the US. People say "I'm doing good," "I'm doing well," "I'm doing fine," "I'm good," "I'm well," "I'm fine" ... no distinction between any of these in everyday usage.
However, the given translation "My family IS good RECENTLY" sounds awkward to my ears -- I think the past tense is much more natural, as : "My family has been pretty good lately," "My family's been good recently."
I agree there is a problem using the present tense with the adverb "recently" which refers to the past. The tense we use for things in the past that extend to the present is the present perfect tense (my family has been well). However I think it would be best to just say "my family is pretty well" and leave out the conflict between is/recently by dropping the "recently" altogether as this is implied in dialogue like this. However this is not accepted. We just need to learn to use the grammatically incorrect "correct" answer given. Nevertheless I have reported it.
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You highlight the major problem here. US speak american and people of England speak english. These languages are different from each other here. The american language speakers are catered for here, not english speakers. Its not just spelling, punctutation and pronunciation but also the syntax where the american word order is quite often contrary to proper english. This is why there is so much contention here. Its a language course for americans only, for most of whom will not be a problem. But true native english speakers have to 'alter the translations accordingly, but frustrate when confronted with being forced to type appallingly poor english to get through the course. Let's hope Duolingo get their (still very good) translators to include our proper english alternatives.
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Duolingo uses the American flag as the icon for courses with English. That should make it clear that the US version of English is being taught.
If you are going to make multiple complaints about what is or isn't "proper English", then you should know that "American" is not a language.
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The point I'm making is that American is not English. English is not American. They are two different languages. American syntax different enormously from that of English. It's this aspect particularly which is creating the vast majority of the posts across the five languages I am studying concurrently. I am not making multiple complaints but making multiple explanations of this because their is so much confusion. If I was complaining I wouldn't be studying Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Indonesian and Spanish and doing well (doing good (American)). It does require native (if England ) speakers to work harder of course because they have often have to carry out a 'double' translation from their target language to English, then to American in order to progress. American is so different, that it could be taught as a language to learn for native English speakers! Please note DidiWeidmann comment below here. He is a non native English speaker whose comment is exactly what I'm talking about.
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English is not American. They are two different languages.
UK and US English are not different languages: they are two very-slightly-different forms of the same language.
There are grammatically-lazy speakers of UK English who say 'good' instead of 'well'...
If I was complaining I wouldn't be studying Japanese
...just as there are grammatically-lazy people in the UK who say 'was' instead of 'were'.
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It is NOT a complaint . I speak about recognising the difference between English and American language. I differ with you on the difference being much, much more than slight. Languages can't be "lazy" but they are different. I learn Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Portuguese and Spanish currently because I LOVE languages and I would assume most here do too or surely they would not be here. So, as a lover of languages I recognise the differences of languages and that applies to American and English. The most important difference in the American language structure which leads to most of the confusion is the syntax where either word order is different from native English and actually alters meaning, or, where they switch subject and object of a sentence. When learning a foreign language it is very important that good English grammar is used for native English speakers and good American grammar for Americans. What we see here is a mix of both and then exacerbated by going overboard with idiomatic slang On the last point in England different idiomatic phrases can be very different just a hundred miles away so only the judicious use should be applied. It's likely you have foreign friends who have on occasion said something in English but with the wrong word order and the meaning even embarrassingly wrong. I.e. Successful language learning, if it is going to be put to use relies heavily on the a good grammatically 'core'. I think Duo Lingo is excellent. I mean I love using it but that doesn't mean it is without some shortcomings the like of which has been highlighted here by hundreds of people across the languages I am studying. Regards.
"is" + "recently" is really strange: Would be no problem, if the semantical correct answers would also be accepted, but now only semantical strange answers are accepted. I have some times the impression, that the maker of this Chinese course do not really master English - this is the reason of serveral very unusual translations as correct answers. Already for native English speakers this is difficult, and for persons like me who try to learn as a not native English speaker with the English course, the learning process so becomes really difficuilt. It would be very helpful if (and is of course necessary that) all the English translations are revised by a qualified English native! As correct answer the most common and not the most colloquial or most exotic answer shoud be given first! If there are short forms (can't/cannot) always both the short and the complete form shoud be accepted, in the case of synonyms, all synonyms should be accepted etc. Thanks
On the contrary, I think the strange constructions add insight into the Chinese syntax, intentional or no. When ever I get lost with word order I think about some of the more strerotypical mistakes in English that people who speak Chinese as a first language make, and then the sentences feel logical. I would say that many of the over-anglicized interpretive syntax translations that they DO have obfuscate more than they assist in clarity, especially if we are supposed to be learning how to think in a certain mode of sentence construction. Occasionally it helps to have the context of how formal a phrase is in usage, but from what I've seen in comments from experienced speakers makes me feel like some of the formality and intensity levels of the Chinese phrases don't fit those of the English translations that Duo gives. It's important to remember that there aren't going to be exact translations for many common concepts and situations in any language, let alone ones as different as Chinese and English are.
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Certainly agree with you. You have my admiration for learning a foreign language with the translation language, English not your native language either. I wish you very well in your endeavour. So many languages are offered using English as the medium for translation, but once I have finished the five languages I currently study I too will look for an alternative translation language to learn other languages not currently not available for English speakers. Regards.
Most people from the United States use "good" instead of "well". It may be improper grammar, that is what we are familiar with.
While this may be true, Duolingo shouldn't be penalising an equivalent statement that's grammatically correct.
"我们最近不错" is translated by Duolingo as "We are pretty good these days." Meanwhile, Duolingo rejected my translation of this sentence as "My family is pretty good these days." Sad!
The translation I'm seeing in the discussion is different than the answer it gives me when I submit a wrong answer. This translation makes grammatical sense (My family is pretty good recently), the other did not.
my family is pretty good recently harxly makes grammatical sense, my family has been quite well recently might be better
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I also have more lingots than useful options to spend them on…think I will start giving them away
The only problem I have with this is that it's inconsistent with the same phrase in the lesson that goes:
"我们最近不错。“
Translation: We have not been bad recently.
Either both should be "pretty good", both should be "not bad", or both "pretty good" and "not bad" should be accepted as correct answers for both.
What is the verb in this sentence? Does 不错 work as "is pretty good" or just "pretty good" in this case?
A verb is not required when a condition or state is the 'result'. Remember "你好吗?" That's just like saying "You well?" No need to say "Are you well?" or "You are well?" Chinese allows omitting words that are not strictly necessary. Your answer could be just "好". No need to include "I am". Watch for this and you might be able to talk fast too! ;)
i think 'lately' should be acceptable for 'recently' - any reason why not?
"My family has been good recently" is apparently wrong. The correct answer is "My family has been pretty good recently"
This is just silly.
The tense is wrong: "is ... recently" should be "has been ... recently". Again, "pretty good" would be "pretty well" or similar for the UK. Someone being pretty good suggests they are good at something.
I put “my family is pretty good recently“ and it says its wrong, the right one is "my family is pretty good recently". Its the same!!!!!!!!!
i wrote : my family has been pretty well recently. received error: You used the wrong word. My family has been pretty good recently.
could someone explain please? really not seeing what it is that i wrote wrong^^
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Explanation: The Bird is dumb, and stubborn. But you can't complain about the price, can you?
It annoyingly doesn't accept "My family have been pretty well recently" and only accepts has
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hmmm, picking me up on my English grammar-I said my family 'have' been not bad recently. As a collective noun, I suppose family should have been 'has'??
shouldn't it be "My family has been fine recently", "is" in that context doesn't make sense to me
The suggested correct solution: "My family has well recently." makes no sense in English.
So an earlier sentence in this module required me to translate "these days" as "最近"; but this time when given "最近" it tells me that "these days" is wrong and it must be "recently". Grr. (Yes, I've reported it...)
I wrote, "my family, recently, is pretty good" is this correct? I was never very good at English in high school.
"Lately my family's pretty good" was my answer. The contraction, however correct, was not accepted.
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I was corrected with this answer:
"My family haven't been not bad lately."
What we never say it as a double negative like that in English.
It's simply: "my family have been not bad lately".
"my family's recently pretty good" is considered correct, but "my family is recently pretty good" is not ... wtf?
I typed in a correct answer and got it wrong! Somebody please fix this error.
Please separate good (adjective) and well (adverb). Well = Fine Good = virtuous.
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Why does Duolingo say that "My family has not been bad recently" is the incorrect translation here, while for "我们最近不错。" it says that "We have been pretty good recently" is incorrect and "We have not been bad recently" is correct.
Obviously the literal translation in both cases is "not bad" but I can't tell if this is just a mistake or inconsistency, or if there is some subtlety I'm missing here.
This is what I'm talking about. In one sentence, 不错 meaning 'pretty good' is wrong, while in this one, it's perfectly fine. Can we try to be consistent?
You have been teaching us that 不错 means "not bad". How is it that my answer is wrong??? THIS IS CONFUSING!!!
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Maddening that sometimes "pretty good" is accepted and actually demanded while at other times it is counted as wrong and Duo only wants "not bad." That leads learner to memorize the particular sentences rather than make legitimate translations.
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excuse me, what's wrong with writing this translation:" My family has been quite good recently " I wrote that and I got a correction saying that I wrote the wrong word?
Is it okay to say my family is good? (well if you want to be more precise) or is there the distinction between pretty good and good?
I'm sorry, "my family is lately well" is what I should have written instead?
"was pretty good recently" is the correct sollution - "is + recently" is a "no go"!
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No, it's not the correct solution. You are right, the combination of "is" and "recently" doesn't make sense. But using the past tense would imply that though they were doing well not long ago, they are not doing well right now. When you talk about situations or actions continuing up to the present, you should use the present perfect rather than the past tense: "The family has been (doing) well recently".
"My family's doing good recently" was wrong and corrected to "My family is doing good recently" The contraction is not wrong...
There is a better way to translate 最近 - it means recently, these days, of late. So the sentence would be best translated as - My family is pretty good these days.
Uh-oh "My family has been pretty/fairly well recently/of late" The verb tense and use of "good" to mean "well" are both wrong in the "answer"
No, my family has never been good, they have been well. Please correct your English so that you are not teaching slang.
The English should be "My family has been pretty good recently". "Is" is present tense, while "recently" indicates the past, so they don't agree.
I entered several of the corrections and it would accept then. Then after i figured out the exact phrase it wanted, it suggested the phrases i just tried as alternatives.
This section is badly screwed up. It is rejecting the text it claims as a translation. It is also not correctly echoing text that I enter. BAD FAIL!!!
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I got a weird error: i typed "my family has been well recently"
and it replied with:
"You used the wrong word. My family hasn't been well recently."
"hasn't been well" means "has been bad."
You used the wrong word. My family hasn't been not bad recently. Why is this correct? Get your English right please!
AGAIN
AGAIN You used the wrong word. My family hasn't been good recently. WHY IS THIS CORRECT? My answer was "My family has been pretty good recently."
App indicated the correct response is "My family hasn't been okay recently." Is this an error?
As an right answer it recomments: "My family hasn't been well recently." Thats the opposite of that why i have been teached here "my family has been well recently" Or do i missunderstood somehing?
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"My family is pretty good recently" is the same as "My family's pretty good recently because "family's" is a contraction of "family is"!
Yes, I agree with your answer. That's what I thought as well. But the app returned the correct response as "My family hasn't been okay recently." So the Duolingo was incorrect.
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I said, "My family has been not bad recently" Marked wrong and corrected to "My family hasn't been not bad recently." C'mon. man!
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Follow up: Believe it or not "My family hasn't been not bad recently." is accepted!
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Pretty good, satisfactory, good, not bad, all should work when you are not bad because not bad means I'm better than I could be.
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I put my family has not been not bad lately. The most awkward way i could answer that question gets accepted. I love that!
My translation: My family has been good lately. It was marked wrong; "has been" looked underlined. Why was this wrong?
My family have been pretty good recently. Is "have" grammatically incorrect?
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Because it conflicts. "has been not bad" . This breaks down to both "been bad" and "not been bad" in the same sentence. It is a syntax error, Grammatically speaking.
"Not bad" should be accepted as well, despite it creating a somewhat strange sentence. It is a literal translation.
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Should it be considered as "My family has been fine recently?" "Pretty good" sounds like sarcasm.
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I do struggle to make sense of the statement has been pretty good. To native english speakers to say "my family has been good recently" (with or without 'pretty') commutes the sense that the family has behaved well recently which implies their behaviour is usually bad. 'Pretty' used in this way is definitely american, not native english.
please accept 'has been good' without using 'pretty good' as they mean the same.
"recently" refers to the past which can run into the present. Example: 'recently has been' = starting in the past and continuing into the present.
There is no difference between "lately" and "recently." The latter should be accepted. The answer given, "doing pretty good lately," is not good English, because "doing well" is preferred, not "doing good."
I typed "OK", duolingo will only accept "ok". Eye roll and next time it is "okay". Seriously?!
You used the wrong word. My family's pretty good recently. How is this correct?
You used the wrong word. My family's good recently. YOU ARE WRONG PLEASE CORRECT.
You used the wrong word. My family hasn't been good recently. YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN PLEASE CORRECT YOURSELF
You used the wrong word. My family's pretty good recently. Why is this correct? Does not sound English to me!!
You used the wrong word. My family hasn't been good recently. Why is this correct?
The word "recently" is not always put at the end of the sentence. It can be put in the middle or at the beginning of the sentence.
As a native speaker, I would never put "recently" in the middle where you put it here. You're right about being able to be put in the beginning. As a general rule English wants time-related phrases to be either the first or last thing in a sentence. :)
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You could say 'my family has recently been good', which doesn't sound too bad. '...is recently good' (or 'has been recently good') sounds somewhat unnatural to me, although the latter is technically correct.
There is more of a problem with 'is' and 'recently', which feels like a tense mismatch. I don't think any native English speaker would put 'recently' next to 'is' rather than 'has'.
