- Forum >
- Topic: Chinese >
- "我姓李，你呢？"
"我姓李，你呢？"
Translation:My last name is Li, and yours?
162 Comments
In English, you can use 'name' for either first or last name. "My name is Li, and you?" should be accepted.
Think of the classic example: "My name is Bond, James Bond." He does not need to say "My last name is Bond, and my full name is James Bond"!
The reason they probably won't accept that is because 性 can only mean last name, where as "name" could be either.
Rlly you pit this up and kids KIDS are on here trying to learn new languages!?!?
I know kids that use Duolingo anx if they saw that and maybe looked it up they could be scared for life
137
They're not going to be scarred for life by seeing one word, come on. And it's better if they don't embarrass themselves by using the wrong word for "last name" :)
This is exactly The point. There is NO other name absolute AND the query specifies last name. Considering my answer was - MY NAME IS LI, AND YOURS- I feel like this was crappy to mark it incorrect.
- 1235
That argument makes no sense. You're saying "name" can mean last name, and 性 does mean last name, so therefore it shouldn't be accepted? What?
Therefore it's only reasonable they would only accept an unambiguous answer! For instance, in English "brother" can mean either younger or older, but they shouldn't accept "brother" as valid answer for 哥哥 because that doesn't help you associate 哥哥 with "older brother"!
Translating 姓 to "name", though possibly correct, doesn't help you associate 姓 with surname!
I don't understand the mindset of most comments here, it's a language course, not a translation course, and people seem to don't get it!
Usually, when people introduce themselves in China, they often use their last name or surname. They say their full name only when they get close/ want to get close to someone. So the last name actually serves as a person's "name", and, they would prefer that you call them with their last name. Thus, "name" as a translation of 姓 sould be accepted.
There's a reason it's translated like that. 姓 as a verb literally means "to be surnamed".
@Andrew - because there is no word for "full name" in English. If I was learning English, I could have given you similar logic while quoting Hindi sentences and prove to you that people 'run with their feet on their head' when scared; or that I will show you such power that 'you will remember your maternal grandmother'. :-) All perfect sentences in Hindi. But I am fully aware that by quoting Bollywood heroes (a la James Bond), I wouldn't have improved my English. So I focused on learning English rather than converting it into Hindi. Just my 2 cents.
That is true. There is also a certain 'style' to each language; this is especially true for Chinese. There are few grammar rules, but countless ways of saying things that wouldn't sound 'right', or would show that you are from a certain region, or things that people from the 'North' tend to say vs things 'Southerners' say, and so on and so forth. This, together with pronunciation, is what I think is most difficult for Chinese language learners.
I would say 'name' could either refer to first name or, as your example, first and last. But not last by itself.
- 394
So because of its tonality, questions in Chinese don't do up in pitch at the end? At least that's what it sounds like (and it makes sense, since each word has its own intonation) Am I right?
Not really. That's not a Chinese thing to do. Each word has its own tone, and if you ended a question with a high pitch, it might change the meaning of the sentence altogether.
We are not going to master Chinese if we spend too much of our Duo time discussing these matters instead of trying to get to the next level. I am fascinated with the arguments and explanations, but I think the more time we devote to studying the better. And perhaps paying attention to detail and accepting that language is an arbitrary conventional thing. I must admit that I have been held up by spending time looking at comments. I want to bring all my language levels up faster than I am achieving that now. But I must say that it is nice to see how everyone thinks and how things are explained, etc, and often enlightening.
The debates are to help understand. Any shmuck can prattle off a sentence; but understanding the words is what makes one fluent!
"I'm surnamed Li" should be accepted, since "surnamed" can act as a past participle verb in English, much like "I'm named Ken, after my father" would work. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surnamed The following are several answers I've submitted on questions like these:
"My last name is Li" = 18 characters [accepted answer, not very concise]; "My surname's Li" = 15 characters [accepted answer, but says "you missed a space" since the "'s" on surname is thought to have been a typo of "surname is" -- although contracting nouns in this way is grammatically correct]; "I'm surnamed Li" = 15 characters [marked incorrect]
Sorry to bore folks with the details -- I just thought it could be useful to Duolingo staff.
This is newbie question, but I thought that "my" in Mandarin was "wǒ" followed by the possessive "de" as in "wǒ de péngyǒu", my friend.
This lesson makes it seem like wǒ alone can also mean "my". Can someone help me to understand when wǒ should be used, and when "wǒ de" should be used?
- 638
it might also be helpful to note that this sentence, if translated more literally, has no mention of "my" in it. literally 我 "i" 姓 "am surnamed" 李 "Li". otherwise, i wouldn't worry about overuse of 的. adding it in for possession, while not always necessary, isn't wrong.
As a newbie comments like yours help me to remember and understand a phrase, so I gave you a lingot. I prefer to understand each word seperatly before translating to more normal English meaning and structure. Thanks!
I used the word surname and it wanted me to use last name. In English they are synonymous !
I think surname is a better answer because it eliminates the confusion of surname being first when said (or written) in Chinese and surname being last in English.
Does it matter how you spell "Li"? Cause I got it wrong spelling it differently.
"Li" is the correct pinyin spelling (this is the official romanization in mainland China.) However, some Chinese people, such as those whose families have been in Western countries since before pinyin was invented, may have tranliterated 李 in different ways. So there might be people with the last name "Lee" that came from the character 李。But in general Li (or really, Lǐ) is the correct way to transliterate 李.
Same as in Spanish. The work "apellido" can ONLY mean last name. Cannot be used for first name at all
I feel the specificity of the expected answer is instructive about Chinese, so I don't mind getting it wrong. But +1 to the "Bond, James Bond" comment regarding real world translation into English.
I feel like a secret agent with all these fake identities... Wo xing Li, wo xing Zhang
My answer was "My last name is Li, what's yours?". This has been my answer for previous questions which was accepted but this time it says wrong may i know why and may i know the difference between "what's yours" and "and yours"?
My last name is Li, what about you? Is not accepted as a correct answer, and I think it should.
Surname and last name are the same thing, but I got it wrong when I put surname.
It seems really arbitrary when they decide they want "name" vs "surname/last name". I've had it let me translate the same sentence both ways, sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's not
I agree that to translate "我姓李" to "my last name is" helps remeber 姓 is specifically surname, but still, it is weird English. Duo should accept “My name is” as an option too.
--我姓李，你呢？
--我姓邦，詹姆斯 · 邦。(I am Bond, James Bond.)
And they should also accept
"I am Li, may I know who you are?"
"You can call me Li, what's your name?"
"I'm known as Li, how about you?"
Let's also work out the other hundreds of ways other movie characters say things and then compile a dictionary just for this one Chinese sentence.
Then we can go on to compile another two hundred page dictionary for the next Chinese sentence.
And in about hundred years we will clear Level one of Chinese to start conversing with kindergarten kids. ;-)
I think the following answer is also collect. "My last name is Li, what's yours?
If all of you are wrong, click the green flag button. It will appear a result why you are wrong. There are some like an picture is missing and so on...
I wrote "My last name is Li, whats yours" and it marked it as wrong??? I know that I'm right (I'm Chinese myself and I'm just here to learn how to read and write). ?????
Is the "woa" pronounced differetly when it's in a sentence with other characters?
I hear it as " [wa] shin.." instead of the "woa shin" .
that's not a chinese pinyin order. I'm chinese an I know that. I just started and am testing the website to see if it is reliable.
I think "what's yours" is a better translation into English that is in use.
No need for a verb "to be" here? Is this casual speech, or simplification in order to learn the characters with simple sentences?
I am the one that disliked all your comments because I don't think your comment was good enough. SAD TIMES.
@Ductin - why to say even "name"? It should be okay to say "I am Li. You?"
In the english word " whats yours" is the same as " and what is yours ?" Thats like actually formel but is this formel?
I'm a little confused by the character "我". It was used as "叫我..." to mean "Call me..." but the two characters can also be switched, as in "我叫..." and have the same meaning. I first assumed "我" meant "I" or "me" and then I see a sentence where it can also be used to mean "my." Am I missing something, or does "我" have all three translations?
I think it is used both as first person singular subject and possessor. Pluralized it appears used as "we" and "our".
Sorry. For the time being and to the best of my knowledge... I haven't, so far, the foggiest clue! Cheers! And... Good luck! If I find out soon I'll let you know!
Don't waste time in comments, you will find many missed translations throughout, Just report it and move on.
Its a minor thing but I wish it would take note of subtle changes to the words that can occur due to autocorrect. Names like Li get changed to Lisa and its annoying to have a streak broken because of that
Lee is pronounced something between and l and an r. Assimilation again, I imagine?
It bothers me that they don't teach you "and". I get why, but i want to know.
Me: Ok. The correct answer is "my name is ~" with confidence. true answer: My "last" name is ~ me: WTH!?
I did the mistake over three times. ugh...
Some people learn after one mistake, some after hundreds, and yet others never.
Great that you are not in that last category.
The question is correct but i feel like it focusing on the distiction betweeen first and last name overcomplicates things.
Yeah, why do they want us to learn the meaning of various Chinese words, I wonder. ;-)
Why does this need an exact English translation? Many translations could worm.
My is wo de in mandarin so this is wrong. De represents the possessive particle to make words like ni and wo possesive.
There is no possession in the sentence. 姓 is the verb "to be surnamed."
The new audios to not have the right answer with the word bank. I answered properly and tell me I am wrong.... it's being happening
