"什么礼物不能送给中国人？"
Translation:What gifts cannot be given to Chinese people?
78 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I was so curious after learning this sentence that I had to google what gifts cant you give. Clocks, watches, umbrellas etc. Very interesting to learn:) I think they put sentences like this in to prompt curiousity to learn more about the culture, and I am grateful for that.
Yes this is the most important aspect of this question! Far more important that grammar nit picking. Shame on Duo for not suggesting any of these in another sentence. This is what I was looking for in the comments. Good job. 5 lingots for you.
What gifts should not I give to Chinese people? This answer is awkward, and not natural grammar. Should read, "What gifts should I not give to Chinese people?" You also need more allowable answers to all your questions when the answer is required in English. On a side note, Engish is much more flexible to the placement of time than you are allowing in most of the questions.
It's not just unnatural, but wrong in contemporary English. And yes, many more English sentences should be allowed. This course will undoubtedly take a long time reach a satisfactory level.
c.elise's comment is worded a little bit tough or mean. I hope the attitude is not intended in the comment.
pears (li) sounds like leaving like li kai; 伞 san) sounds like separation (散) in Chinese
"What gift can you not give to a Chinese person?" should be accepted.
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"What gifts can you not give to a Chinese person?" Still reported wrong as of 2019-03-26. Reported.
Sometimes when I read the discussion, I want to scream with frustration. We are learning Chinese here but the discussion are always about how bad Duo's English translation. I focused in my Chinese study. I'm busy in memorising the words stroke by stroke . I don't care about the English translation here.
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It'd be great to have two tabs in discussion forums, one purely to discuss questions regarding the language taught, the other for everything else e.g. technical issues, dearth of alternatives in the accepted translations list, and so on.
And ideally an adjustable 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25 speed for listening as well.
I couldn't have said it better. If you want to learn proper English then I hate to break it to you but you're on the wrong course. I am here to learn Chinese, not English so who cares if this is something a native English speaker would say or not! To understand or differentiate between certain characters it's actually better to translate in a more literal way, otherwise you won't get the context. At least that's how I see it.
All through my schooling I asked lots of questions, went on tangents that curiosity took me on. My grades were not as good as the students who were like "sponges". They memorized what the teacher said and then spit it out. They usually got better grades. Later in life I run into the sponge people. Most of the time I have been more successful. I'm not here to get through the Mandarin course. I want it to stick and have some usefulness in my life. I'm almost 60 years old and a lesson I learned was I learn as much from the side material that benefits me later in life than just the syllabus. I like the discussions on the parallels between English and Mandarin and other languages. I took a history class on the 1920s. The teacher played some swing music from that era. I liked the sampling enough to learn to dance and play instruments which lead me to making friends that I never would have known.
It would be great if the English translations were better then incorrect 'incorrect's could be substantially reduced or better still eliminated!
What's frustrating for English speakers is that we can't move on with the course unless we agreed to write the translation the way Duolingo wants it, as terrible as it sounds. And we kept on hearing that annoying wrong tune even though it should have been correct. What I did though, is starting to take screenshots of the horrible translation and just wrote it exactly as is. Otherwise I can't move on to the next lessons.
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My experience is actually that the Chinese course has overall a broader acceptance of English answers than many of the other DL courses, and that is one of the contributing reasons why I am enjoying this Chinese course so much. Granted, it's not perfect and there's always room for improvement but nevertheless it's a pretty amazing course to be able to access freely.
It could get closer to perfect if DL would communicate with us, fix items faster or even at all. I chose to pay for the site so I consider my self to be a customer.
Wow, I have HSK 5 and am about to take HSK 6 and I am continuously failing these quizzes. I think it's clear that whoever is writing the English translations for these sentence is not proficient in English and is not allowing enough flexibility for the answers. Time can be placed in the beginning and end of a sentence in English.
"What gifts are inappropriate to give Chinese people?" Is the true meaning of the Chinese sentence. "I can not give" implies that there is some law or rule that is restricting you from giving the gift; obviously not the intended meaning here.
You cant give a clock. Its a bad omen like your telling them to die. P.S Dont try it. And also 4 sounds like die in chinese. You can ask me questions about chinese culture if you want as I live in Hong Kong....
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Maybe you're right, but surely the English should be "should not give" or "best not to give" rather than "can not give"
Besides a clock -- what ARE the gifts one should not give to Chinese people?
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My understanding is giving a green hat indicates that person has had an unfaithful partner, but I don't know the story behind it. I know the whole 四 sounds like 死 thing, but does anyone know why the green hat means that?
Once upon a time , a tang dynasty emperor take the crown prince's concubine and gave him a jewelry green hat as his repay. Have you heard about The Yang Guefei story. That's the story behind the unpopular green hat.
The subject of the Chinese sentence is implied - could be I, you, or one in English.
For the emotionally labile amongst us whom imagine that a language app which is largely occupied by freeloaders can simply manifest a bug-free experience, just like that, are welcome to flush themselves back down the toilet pipe they floated in on. You are aware that this is a BETA version, right? REPORT your alternate suggestions and otherwise STFU. Duolingo has approved 8 of my alternate responses in just the past week! Fabulous work! If we can channel our criticisms constructively we can have this in ALPHA as quickly as BETA appeared. And I, for one, am so grateful for the appearance of Mandarin here on Duolingo. 谢谢!
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On the flip side, it could be that the system might not do enough to ensure people know they're sign up for a beta course and what that's going to mean.
And I have changed my opinion. This course DOES suck. Thanks for the correction about versions, too!
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1) 送终 sòng zhōng (arrangement of proper burial ceremony); 2) 时钟 shí zhōng (clock).
The last 2 chinese characters are of similar sound zhōng (homonyms). The character 送 means to give.. So if one is giving a clock /watch it is 送钟 sòng zhōng , which has identical sound to 送终.
It is now apparent that this is particularly inauspicious. What I personally practise when giving a watch to a Chinese person is to request a payment for the watch perhaps 5 cents or 10 cents. As such this becomes a sale at 99.9999% discount and not a gift. So it is now not 送终
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Is there any reason why the translation in English is in the passive voice while the question in Chinese is in the active voice? This really is annoying.
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There is no personal pronoun in the chinese and any version of the active answers is very un-natural English
trying to guess what subject they want me to assume is getting really old, really fast. I understand that in Chinese context is implied, but if duolingo cannot provide the context, why are all various possible subjects not accepted?
Is there a reason the passive voice or singular would be incorrect? (i.e. "What kind of gift should not be given to a Chinese person?")
Where is the "I". What gift should no be given to Chinese people. Sound correct to me
I do not understand why this is 能. I would think you would use 可以 to denote that it's inappropriate to give those gifts to Chinese people, not 能, which as I understand it would have to do with what gifts you are physically prevented from giving...
This sentence is convoluted and reads strangely in English. I wrote "which gifts"rather than "what gifts"and was marked incorrect.
It simply won’t accept any other solutions, such as “What gifts cannot be given to a Chinese?”. This entire lesson, by the way, present similar and recurrent problems...
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I had to Google it to: https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/things-not-give-chinese-new-year.htm
Doesn't this sentence also translate to, Don't give Chinese people any gifts?
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What gifts should one not give to a Chinese person?
It's sad that was marked wrong. Reported June 2021.
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"What gifts cannot be given to Chinese people" is now duolingo's suggested English answer 28Jan'22
Duo told me that "What gift can not I give to Chinese people?" is the right answer. Huh? Seriously?
This piece of dino-dung doesn't test one's proficiency. It only tests one's ability to guess your translation verbatim.
This strictness of these answers are maddening！ You should remove Chinese from Duolingo. This is not learning... it's an exercise in frustration.