"他是一个初中学生，但是个子比我高。"
Translation:He is a middle school student, but he is taller than me.
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he is a middle school student but he is taller than me
junior high and middle school are the same thing.
Native Chinese speakers almost always use the direct translation middle school "中学"
And although it doesn't mean anything in the context of China, junior high and middle school are two mutually exclusive models of education in the US.
The most noticable difference is middle school includes grades 6, 7, and 8 (and sometimes 5) versus only 7 and 8 for junior high
Also the middle school curriculum is student-centered including personal, emotional and social development rather than subject centered.
The British system of schooling (if anyone cares lol): Nursery, Reception, Year 1 + 2; makes the first half of primary school. Year 3 (ages 7-8) until year 6 or 8 (ages 12-13) Year 7 or 9 is the start of secondary school which ends at year 11 or 13. Year 11 -13 is sixth form or college. Then what the Americans call college we call university. What the American call public schools, we call state schools as our public schools are boarding.
That's not the whole story of the British system. Most secondary schools begin in either year 7 or 8 (11-13), and often people don't got to a single 'primary school', but instead attend 'first school' (Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3), followed by 'middle school' (Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, and sometimes Yr 7).
Sixth form is usually only Year 12 and Year 13 (two years for A-Levels) as Year 10 and Year 11 are for GCSEs.
It all depends on where you live in the country!
Public schools in the UK are also not necessarily boarding schools. They are just privately owned and almost always fee-paying. It's a ridiculous term really...
Grammar schools, by comparison, are state schools (no fees), but you have to pass a test aged 11 or 12 to get a place, and they tend to teach an accelerated curriculum.
In nor cal, we always used junior high and middle school interchangeably
I attended Thunder Bay Junior High School which had 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. The other Jr. High in our city, Besser, had the same arrangement. 9th grade / freshman year was analagous to being a senior at our Alpena (Michigan) High School which had 10th thru 12th grades.
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They are the same in my part of the world. Every so often this app has a strange lack of idiomatic vocabulary and insists on ungrammatical colloquial translations.
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"He is a junior high school student, but he is taller than I" should be accepted. Originally, a nominative noun is placed after "than", though an objective noun is accepted nowadays. Posted on Nov. 19, 2017.
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Why is this marked -2? The poster is correct " ... taller than I" is the correct form grammatically. It is the shortened form of "... taller than I am". "... taller than me" is wrong grammatically.
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"Taller than I" can be considered correct, but so can "taller than me". The word "than" with a subjective pronoun is more a feature of older forms of English. In contemporary English, "than" (meaning "compared to") can function as a preposition, which takes objective pronouns (like "me" or "him"). For example, it's more acceptable to say/write something like "you're quicker than him", instead of "you're quicker than he".
I have been studying Mandarin for four years and have never seen 个子 used before. I've seen it twice in this lesson. 谢谢 / Thanks Duolingo!
I wish someone would answer this question. Maybe 3 years later you found out?
I not only have the same question as you but also I'm struggling to understand how the original sentence "他是(...)，但是个子比我高" is grammatically correct at all. To my rookie eyes they're missing a 他的 and the 的 in 我的. What part of the sentence left of 比 indicates it "his" height? I know you can Imply the 他 because it's the subject of the first clause, but can you just drop the subject AND the 的? And what about the 我 by itself? I've seen the subject or noun that follows de 的 being dropped when it's clear by the context, or dropping the 的 when the words are very short, but dropping both? Doesn't that change the meaning?
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It means 'stature, size, height, build'.
A tip: there are no spaces between characters and after punctuation.
'He is a junior high student...' should be okay as well. Seems silly to penalize that.
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I also find "但是“ Chinese sentences are usually equivalent to "Although..." For example, "Although he is a middle school student, he is taller than me." This sentence sounds more natural to me in English than "[statement], but..." sentences; however, this might be considered a liberal translation and not the literal translation Duolingo seems to favor.
Your English speech pattern is fine. So is a preference for using 'but'.
As a side note, Standard Chinese has a combination pattern: 虽然 (suīrán) 'although'…可是 (kěshì)/但是 (dànshì)… 'but'. English includes either 'although' in the first clause or 'but' in the second clause. It never uses both. With Standard Chinese, the speaker can use both 虽然 and 可是/但是 with no sense of redundancy.
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Take note that it depends on how you use it, this is by no means a general rule but something of a common exception.
"but he is taller than I" should be acceptable; it is grammatically correct as well.
I got corrected for saying "he's" instead of "he is" and I don't believe it should be classified as a typo
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Wait, why can't we write as "He is a middle grade student, but is taller than me in height"
I would like a more literal translation for the last part to better understand the structure. Does it translate to "He is taller than me in height"?
What is the difference between "He is a middle school student, but he is taller than me" and "He is a middle school student, but taller than me"? Answer: Nothing, except the second answer is wrong. Really?
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Have we seen this 个子 thing before? I guess it means "tall" or "height" but grammatically it's strange because then it sounds like "but height is taller than me" or "but tall is taller than me". So confusing.
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Despite the fact that"he is taller than I / I am" is grammatically correct, this usage has been overshadowed by "he is taller than me". And the latter which was initially regarded as wrong ( "he" is compatible with " I") (" him" is compatible with "me"), is now almost universally accepted as correct.
Can someone please explain how 个子 works? It seems to break every grammar pattern.
Let me break it down to show you what I mean (yet I don't understand).
但是个子比我高 = But he is taller than me
Broken down:
(missing subject) = He (inferred from the previous clause)
但是 = but
个子 = height
比 = than
我 = me
高 = high
I know that I should end up with "But his height is higher than mine", but this is the pattern that I should apply "[object1] 比 [object2] [adjective]".
If I do that I end up with "But height is higher than I" (and I'm not sure how to squeeze in the implied "he"). So we are not comparing heights to heights, we're comparing height to person.
It would make sense if we added 他的 and replaced the 我 with 我的 like this:
但是他的个子比我的高 = But his height is higher than mine.
Then we would be comparing heights to heights (his and mine).
I feel we're throwing words at the sentence and we all make sense of it (it's understandable), but we're really not applying the correct pattern. What am I missing? How does this work?
"taller than me" is incorrect - "taller than I" is right. I know it is becoming popular to say it this way but if you extend it "taller than me am" you see the problem. "Less people" and "did good" are also popular - doesn't mean they're right.
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It's now correct. It's taught as the correct form in Oxford University Press materials and all other respected ESL books I've seen. We all have a place where we draw the line (one of mine is "I didn't used to" versus the correct "I didn't use to"), but we have to accept that languages change. In another generation, "less people" will probably be considered correct. BTW, personally, I'd like to see English drop the third person singular s, but it won't happen in my time.
Sorry - just returned back to this level after I thought I'd completed it a year ago and saw your reply. I guess the issue depends on how you treat the 'than' - ie a preposition or conjunction or both. It just seems a bit odd to see it as both. French makes a clear determination of a 'than' (ie que) as a preposition so they will not entertain a subject. English seems to be a bit too 'shuibian" in this case, especially when it allows an extension with an auxiliary/modal
她 should be accepted in the listening exercise, as well. I have reported it.
"He's a middle school student, but taller than me" should be accepted but isn't
