"他是一个初中学生，但是个子比我高。"
Translation:He is a junior high school student, but he is taller than me.
36 Comments
121
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.
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.
中学 means high school in my experience, which in HK and Australia is grade 7-12.
- 1778
"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.
'He is a junior high student...' should be okay as well. Seems silly to penalize that.
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!
- 396
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.
- 34
Take note that it depends on how you use it, this is by no means a general rule but something of a common exception.
- 1026
If 个子 is the noun "height", would it also be acceptable to say ...但是他的个子比我的高?
"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.
- 285
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.
- 704
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.
- 1026
"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".
No it cannot be accepted in standard English because 'than' is a conjunction so it must be comparing two subjects not a subject and an object. if you extend the sentence to "taller than I am" it sounds fine. What about "taller than me am"?
- 1026
Nevin711542, I agree that "taller than me am" is grammatically wrong. But the point is that, in modern-day English, "than" can function as both a conjunction and a preposition. So, both "taller than I am" (conjunction) and "taller than me" (preposition) are acceptable. Saying "taller than me am" is sort of like using "than" partially as a conjunction and partially as a preposition, which is wrong. In fact, "than" has been used as a preposition for a very long time. Shakespeare even uses it as such.
I don't want to start a big debate here, and I certainly don't want to come off as pushy or stubborn. If we have to agree to disagree, that's fine with me.
You are right - it is a long 'unsettled' debate and dictionaries and grammar guides have capitulated to popular oral usage as they always do (Me and my friend" will be acceptable in another few years as will 'less people' and 'did real good'). I'm not out to persuade, just to defend an earlier position by a poster who thinks it is wrong. When you say "Saying "taller than me am" is sort of like using "than" partially as a conjunction and partially as a preposition, which is wrong", that's exactly the same problem with "taller than me" because the 'am' is only omitted due to the reduction effect. (in fact drawn out it is "than I/me am tall") I don't deny that duality in word form exists. Standards change [Shakespeare also used double negatives (Not in love neither?)] and I fully acknowledge that in about 50 years 'than' will probably only be treated as a preposition, so I'm facing a losing battle. But treating 'than' as both a prep and conj, seems to only confuse non-native speakers. It's just like the "simple passive participle vs adj complement" debate - students don't want native speakers to tell them that in a sentence like "I am beaten" 'beaten' can be both a past participle and an adj complement. It makes English seem awfully like the way Quantum Mechanics views light (wave & particle) so I would hope the language can be made easier to understand than QM!
English is more flexible than any set of rules that may be imposed on it, especially pseudo-mathematical logic. “Taller than me” has been correct in standard English for a long time now, and “taller than I” is now regarded as fussy and old-fashioned and will generally be perceived as such. “Taller than I am” remains correct. Check various style-guides and literature for corroboration. Compare the French use of “moi”.
It is not pseudo-mathematical if 'than' is a conjunction between two subjects and you cannot make a consistent case for it as a preposition. I know there is the crowd that wants it to be a preposition but they cannot justify it in any other way than by saying it is popular. The problem with the crowd that wants to treat it as a preposition is that they can't accept it the other way. Can I say " They gave him more popcorn than I"? No, because now 'I' is treated as an object. Me and my friend went to the store is popular, too. Do you accept that as well?
