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- "Are they students?"
"Are they students?"
Translation:她们是学生吗？
77 Comments
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Both male 他 and female 她,( Tā ) have the same pronunciation. In plural form, you need not to be worried about as 他们 and 她们, (Tāmen) both will be translated to 'they'.
He = 他 （Tā）
She = 她 （Tā）
They = 她们，他们 （Tāmen）
What is the meaning of 生? I understand it is a component of various professions such as Student or Doctor, but does it have any unique meaning?
It means life on its own. For example, 生日, meaning birthday, can be literally translated as "life day."
That's like asking what the "dent" in "student" means. It means very little by itself.
That's Chinese and of course it makes no sense. It's the most random language in the world. Even Chinese peole can't write the characters properly anymore, cos nowadays they just write it all on their phones and the phones do it for them.
But that's the point of Chinese. Dont try to make sense of it. It doesn't work. Just remember the sounds snd associate them with the letters and their meaning
It's true, when translating Chinese to English it's very difficult to understand, because an exact translation the english is very broken. Like writing 你不吃饭 (ni bu chi fan) is exactly translated into 'you no eat rice' but when translated into proper english it's 'you don't eat rice'
So the translation between Chinese (Mandarin) to English is very complicated
You are definitely able to make sense of it. These individual meanings can be combined together to make more meanings. To take the idea of another user, what does "ladybug" mean? Then how does it relate to a lady or a bug?
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生 alone has been used as student for a long time. Examples: 門生 means the disciple of a certain school. 師生 means teachers and students, more concise than 老師和學生.
It means birth or creation. For example "生日" means day of birth, with "日" meaning day and "生" meaning birth.
I was taught that 生also has a meaning of 'unripe' or 'raw'. So you can think of 学生 as a young person who is still not 'ripe with knowledge' and still 'raw' and need more education to be 'finished'.
As far as I understood, 生 is a unification of something like a group. Let me explain: 学生 = student(s), 医生 = doctor(s), both have Sheng 生， the tips say it could be singular or plural, so I think its like a group of something you specify.
Say what? 不对， 朋友。 This is definitely not correct. 生is not a measure word as you are implying at all! A measure word would be like 只 in 一只狗，or 个 in 两个人 。 生 has the meaning of something, 'raw/unripe/life' which is where we get sheng1huo2 生活。 医 means ‘to cure/to treat/medical' and the whole word 医生 implies something like someone who can 'cure/treat your living being. '
This is an insightful answer.
People starting to learn Chinese tend to literally put ideograms together as if they were just words, and that's wrong.
You better think about the different meanings each ideogram can represent and how to relate them to communicate something that doesn't have its own ideogram.
Chinese is much older than any occidental language, so it's common to find ideas like "student" (a person that attends to a school to learn things from their teachers) simply didn't exist back then, so at some point in time people needed to communicate such ideas somehow, and that didn't occur from night to day.
I thought the verb to be was not necesary in this language. I missed the hanzì 是 and it marked wrong. When is mandatory and when not?
It doesn't sound necessary, but I'm not a native speaker, so don't take my word for it. Native speakers, do you know? Thanks.
Never give up! Don't be afraid to ask questions if you do not see them in the sentence discussion either.
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Some of the answers are correct but the program is marking them as incorrect because it is limited. Ie: 她们 should not be marked as incorrect for "they" because male or female is not indicated in the question
In english, "Is" and "are" have the same meaning, except "are" is the plural and "is" is singuluar in chinese, you use numbers to convey plurality if required, so the "们” means it is "are" in english, not "is", as they is a plural pronoun.
They should! This is the construction I always used in conversation and what I encountered most people used at least in Beijing. 是不是， 对不对， 好不好！
Why is it "ta men" insted of "ni men" also does the boy form of "ta" have to be used
Is it always necessary to add 吗 at the end of a sentence when asking questions? Or are there specific rules on when too add it?
Yes, because it means to ask a question like do, or are. With out it, it would not be a question.
Duolingo did not offer me the proper selectable option for THEY...I could not get it right in any case
sometimes I have to use 是 but not always. it is confusing at this stage, hope I can figure it out later
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In a previous exercise I used 很 (hěn) to connect the words. In this I am using 是 (Shì) instead. Why is the connecting word not 很 (hěn)? Example: 他们很学生吗
As far as ai understand, 很 you use only to connect subject with a conditions.. 高兴 ， 好 ， etc. And 是 you use to connect subject with pronoms. Idk i might be wrong but for me makes sense.
I've made this mistake too many times because the dictionary hints didnt show it so why is 吗 at the end?
I answered "ta me xue sheng ma" omitting the "shi". I think this answer is still acceptable
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Isn't the plural of 'student' 学生 = 'students' 学生们 xuéshēngmen?
MODERATOR: Please review the answer options for lack of character 们 men.
是 isnt always needed in a sentence. It can be dropped and still hold meaning.
"Tā men shì xué shēng me?" is wrong. So, only traditional characters are supported?
Two different possible answers. One is they(female) and the other one is they(male)
