"李老师的电话号码是多少？"
Translation:What's Teacher Li's telephone number?
151 Comments
"What's Teacher Li's phone number?" has been marked wrong, I think it's correct.
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.
I don't get it, either. My answer should have been correct, though it showed up as wrong.
I prefer it to say, 'Teacher Li's phone number is what' over anything else. The closer to the Chinese sentence structure the better. I keep getting thrown off and lag due to translation.
"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. ???
Because its not Li's, tbat would be Li is but it belongs to Li so its Lis lol right ?
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No. Li's could be BOTH Li is and belonging to Li. You would not write Lis unless you were talking about many Lis.
I thought 多少 just meant how much not what. Why would you not just use 什么for what?
Basically it translates 李老师的电话号码是多少 literally as li teacher 's telephone number is how much. So the difference between 什么 and 多少 is quantity vs not
老师 directly translates to teacher, not professor. 教授 translates to professor.
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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.
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Just to see, I tried "Teacher Li's phone number is what?" And it didn't like that, either.
Fist i tried same, but i think the idea is that it is imprtant to translate very close to original one(much more similar) and i think it is good aproach to learn.
They emphasize the use of teacher so that we understand it's a teacher, not just any person
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.
In some Asian countries, they do call their teacher, Teacher [insert name] in English.
I think learning a language consists of learning some of the culture also. Probably 'titles' ( teacher, professor, doctor ) are more important where Mandarin is spoken than where English ( or some other languages ) is spoken.
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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.
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"What is the phone number of teacher Li" is still marked wrong. I reported. 28 Nov. 2017
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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.)
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I used phone instead of telephone and it was marked wrong. That's a mistake
I actually go to a real life Chinese school and am using this for extra practice. Why does it have to be Teacher Li? I take Chinese and when we translate we simply say teacher.
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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.
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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.
If you have a whole bunch of teachers whom you address in Chinese, it's customary to mention their name. But as Keith308807 says, if you're talking to him/her specifically, then it's understood if you just say "teacher".
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Because that is what was in the Chinese sentence, and you can't just leave it out when you translate.
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.
That is just the way the Chinese do it. They put the "what" at the end whereas in English it goes at the beginning.
Nothing in the material presented so far in this Duolingo has prepared us to translate this sentence.
What about the tips to this lesson that gave an almost identical sentence?
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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!"
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?
There is no "ma" in this sentence, although it's a question. When the interrogative "ma" should and shouldnt be used?
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.
I am a bit puzzled about the use of "ma"(3rd tone) and "ma" (question word). What is the function/meaning of "ma"(3rd tone)?
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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.
This sentence is too long for me to say at this early in my learning and is quite intimidating. The English translation is the most broken English I've seen on Duolingo; while it might not be entirely wrong, I promise any English teacher would mark it wrong on an essay or test. Also I'm a crybaby
i put, what is li, the teacher's telephone number? it should have been right but i got it wroooooong :'0
what does "me" means? sorry i cannot write the hanzi with my keyboard XD
Why would you say ”电话号码“ instead of just simply "电话”? Would "李医生的电话是多少？” be correct?
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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.
so i could literally want to ask someone their number, but maybe make it sound like how they are?
(ni) hao ma?
Gosh darn tones :/
help?
Is it me, or are they pronouncing this incredible fast? I try to go off the sound, but its incredible fast.
i put What's Teacher's Li telephone number and got it wrong do to putting the 's on teacher
It doesn't matter what i do I put "What's teachers Li's phone number" And "What's teachers Li's telephone number" Why is dont working?
I said "Teacher Li's phone number is what?" Any tips to why that was wrong?
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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.
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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 !
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Merci, notamment pour l'effort de commenter en français, et bon courage à vous aussi !
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Nothing mandatory. Just to notice that it's a title like Mister, Miss or Professor.
多少 confused me in this instance because I'd only ever heard it used to refer to "How many?" before. It can translate to "how much? / how many? / and when asking for phone number, student ID etc, what number?". 我爱是学生！
What about'What is Teacher Li's telephone?' Technically this would be considered corrected because What's is the short version. Right?
previously just 电话 was used as phone number (我的电话是1234...）but now its 电话号码... so im wondering if both are OK, or is it based on context or something?
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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.
most difficult sentence that i have reached from beginning and i got wrong T.T
"What's Mr. Li's phone number?" has been marked wrong and if you have experienced the same thing, please comment down below.
I thinks this correct "What is Teacher Li's telephone number?" as "What's Teacher Li's telephone number?"
I accidentally selected "what is teacher's li's telephone number?" Rip my english. Lol.
You can be right if you asked about a model or a material of a teacher's phone unit. In the context of the lesson such a sentence is not correct.
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I have the feeling that it makes it wrong both ways. Some times telephone and others, phone is taken as wrong. Not fully AI.jeje
What is Miss Li's phone number? It is correct too. Why is it assumed that a teacher must be a man???
What about, "Teacher Li's telephone number is what?" This sounds right in English.
You guys are concerned about the wrong things. Why in the ❤❤❤❤ is there a new word for what?
Ms./Mrs. Li has been marked wrong. Are you saying only guys can be teachers? Reported
Mr. Li is marked wrong as well. They emphasize the use of teacher so that we understand it's a teacher, not just any person
No gender was hinted in the sentence. Some Asian languages like Chinese, they call their teachers by putting Teacher in front of their name like Teacher Li. This also works for family relatives like 李哥哥 (Older Brother Li).
