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- "李老师的电话号码是多少?"
"李老师的电话号码是多少?"
Translation:What's Teacher Li's telephone number?
259 Comments
663
Actually this is TRUE. Maybe Duolingo considers "phone" incorrect for this case. I tried to use "phone" (instead of "telephone") in another sentence and it is also true. Duolingo even showed me the alternate translation.
616
Dian hua applies to cell phone / mobile device rather than phone generally.... because the dian equates to electricity / electric:
电 dian4
electric / electricity / electrical
话 hua4
dialect / language / spoken words / speech / talk / words / conversation / what sb said
11
In my mind, I produced another alternate connotation for 电话 similarly to yours too. ''Electrical speech''
I don't think a native speaker of English would use the expression 'teacher Li'. Maybe 'Mr. Li'. or 'Miss Li' etc. etc.
341
yes we correct.. but duolingo considers it wrobg and differentiates be phone and telephone
"What is Teacher Li's phone number?" is accepted as a correct answer, but it says there is a typo there. ("Li s") I don't understand this. I don't understand what the typo is, and I certainly don't understand why my answer would be accepted as correct (but with a typo) and yours would be marked wrong. ???
If that were the case, "phone" would be underlined, not "Li s". Also, in the Tips for this skill (https://www.duolingo.com/skill/zs/Contact/tips), it translates 电话号码 as "phone number," not "telephone number."
412
No. Li's could be BOTH Li is and belonging to Li. You would not write Lis unless you were talking about many Lis.
Mr. = xian1sheng. Lao3shi1 = teacher. It doesn't matter if in English people used to call teacher as Mr. It is not the correct translation. I know in English people call teachers as Mr., but this translation would only be useful if you are writing subtitles, or tranlating a book into English. For those who are learning chinese this translation should be misleading. The real translation should be accept.
266
It's a cultural thing. A lot of cultures use titles when addressing teachers. When I taught in Latin America (yes, I know that's not a Chinese-speaking place...that's just where I have experience), some students and parents would address me as "Teacher." I'm guessing it's the same in many Asian cultures.
1236
We were only making a comment on the English translation. It is actually not a fair play to expect an English native speaker to answer something like "Teacher Li" instead of "Mr./Ms. Li", because that's the way the same is expressed in English. I am Chinese myself and I do not see it as a disregard of our culture. It is just because people understand it would they answer in that way.
What Duolingo hasn't taught users are what and how exactly this pattern is applicable. In fact, as some users had learned themselves and mentioned, even the family name is not necessary, where it is already understood.
438
One thought on strange translations. This is not a translation course. It is a Mandarin course taught to English speakers. While it is difficult at times to wrap one's head around the meaning of weird translations, it helps to remember that to learn another language we have to acustom ourselves to the "thinking/pattern" logic of that language. The seemingly weird translations can sometimes facilitate this process. (hope that makes sense to someone.)
846
Just to see, I tried "Teacher Li's phone number is what?" And it didn't like that, either.
1433
Also native English speakers generally will not refer to teachers this way, and with no indication of which of Mr., Mrs., or Miss to use, if professor is an appropriate translation, it is probably the best translation.
2060
"What is the phone number of teacher Li" is still marked wrong. I reported. 28 Nov. 2017
1236
Just an additional note: apart from a matter of convenience, there is a cultural reason to omit the name. In older time, nobody is allowed to call a person in the upper rank by their name. So addressing someone with their professional title is also a sign of respect.
1236
When the teacher is your teacher, you would often omit the name when you are talking to him/her or to his/her other students.
I answered "What's Teacher Li's telephone number?" and even though it was accepted the program told me I had a typo and underlined "Li's". I think that was because we have only the option to use "Li" + " 's" (separately) and not "Li's" but it is exactly the same and we have no other option. Why should it be considered a typo?
1236
They are different characters and have different meaning/use. 吗 is an interjection marking a Yes-or-no question, 码 as in 号码 means a number or a code.
1236
There is a regional difference. Some places accept 多少 (Mainland China), some accept 几号(Taiwan and SE Asia); 什么 is a bit strange for me in Chinese, but who knows someone somewhere may talk like that. If I am asked in Chinese "What" my telephone number is, I probably would answer "My telephone number is … of course, a NUMBER!"
443
Ma 吗 turns a statement into a yes or no question. For example, "This is Teacher Li's phone" is 这是李老师的电话。To change that into "Is this Teacher Li's phone?" you would simply add the 吗 particle: 这是李老师的电话吗? Ma 吗 is only for yes or no questions.
For other kinds of questions, you basically phrase it like a statement, and replace the thing you're asking about with a question word, like 什么 shenme, "what?" or 多少 duoshao, "what number?/how many?"
So if the answer is "Teacher Li's phone number is 5309," 李老师的电话是五三零九。 then the question is "Teacher Li's phone number is what number?" 李老师的电话是多少? Other questions, like who? 谁 shei and how? 怎么 zenme , work the same way.
443
多少 and 什么 take the place of a noun when turning a statement into a "what is" kind of question. Example: if the answer is 这是我的猫 ("This is my cat.") then the question is 这是什么?(Literally "This is what?") So 李老师的电话号码是多少? is basically "Teacher Li's phone number is what?" where 多少 takes the place of Teacher Li's phone number.
900
To me, the real question is not about 李老师的 which can be considered as chinese usage (Mr/Ms/Mrs, Teacher or Professor are all titles). The interesting point here is the 多少 (duō shǎo) final question word. Actually, it means "much fiew" and is used to ask about an amount of anything: a price, a mass, a weight, a voltage... Usually it is translated by "How much", expecting a number as answer. However, in english, for a phone number, "How much" would be a bad question word. Thus the use of "What" in this case. The construct is to replace the expected number of the affirmative sentence by 多少 in the question, at the same position. In our example, the answer would be "李老师的电话号码是二七九九五一", for instance. I hope I've been clear enough, and I beg your pardon for my poor english, being a french speaking guy.
1236
Oui, ce n'est pas très logique. Il n'est pas mon habitude non plus de demander "combien" est-il un numéro téléphonique. Quand-même il paraît qu'il y ont des gens qui parlent comme ça. Nous avons autres façons de le dire, comme 几号. Pour moi, 什么"what" fait pire aux oreilles. Il me semble "C'est quoi ça?". Vous serez entendu en tous cas.
Bon courage !
1236
Both are okay. 电话 is basically "telephone" but usually people are mostly interested in knowing the telephone number 电话号码. Asking in Chinese what is your telephone is analogous to asking what is your number in English. You will be understood in that context that you are not talking about a telephone set or a telephone call.
Teacher is not a proper noun. It's not like Professor, or Doctor and shouldn't be capitalized. Saying "Teacher Li" also just sounds weird. Students don't call their teachers "Teacher Li" they say Mr. or Miss. The sentence should be What's Li the teacher's phone number or What's Mr. Li's phone number. Suppose I could be wrong though. I could be wrong tho.
156
In English I have never heard of someone say Teacher Li, it sounds so wrong. But using Mr or Mrs would be a problem as how would you explain it in Chinese? When I put in 'What's Mr. Li' s telephone number, I was marked wrong.
345
I'd guess it's a trade-off - making the English sentence less conventional to illustrate the Chinese usage more clearly.
52
Before, I had "What is teacher Wang's phone number?", and I answered with that, even specifying "Wang's", yet it said I had a typo at "Wang's", but it showed it as "Wang s". Same here, but instead with "Li's", so this time I did report it, as I've seen others that answered the same, so I guess I'm not wrong.
345
李老师 is a teacher whose surname is Li, not a teacher of Li('s), so Teacher Li's should be OK.
1542
What is the telephone number of Mr Li is acceptable. In English we would not call someone "teacher Li " but would use the term " Professor Li" if he was a professor.
If the hover over characters would have the mandarin characters AND the pinyin and the English it would be even more helpful with confirming my recognition. I think. Although, it might not. Not sure, if my brain would get lazy :o) I appreciate the difficulty level. I like that it started with telephone number and then separated these out. That made practicing the pronunciation easier.
345
Technically, smartphones are also telephones (I was a connectivity engineer), so I'd say a lot of people use telephones these days.
616
Duo1
There are 2 radicals in this Character: 夕xīevening 夕xīevening
duo1
many / much / often / a lot of / numerous / more / in excess / how (to what extent) / multi- / Taiwan pr. [duo2] when it means "how"