"They are eating rice."

Translation: 他们在吃饭。

[Alexis137082]

Ta men chi fan should work as well. I have been taking Chinese for 5 years and know a quite a lot

[Avinou11]

i think they want us to use 在 to emphasize that the action is happening now, as in it's in progress - "they ARE EATING rice", rather than "they eat rice".

[Nashua621403]

Well the reason is because, when people say, "Ta men chi fan," It translates more as, "They are eating food," or "They eat." In the same sense, "chi fan le ma?" Translates to, "Have you eaten?" It's an old cultural language point because Chinese ate mostly rice back in the day. Other foods were present, but 90% or more was rice. The phrase just stayed around. If you say, Ta men zai chi fan, we know 100% that they are doing the action of eating rice.

[LauraWhitm5]

在 (zai) is -ing here. 吃饭(chi fan) means eat. 吃米饭 (chi mifan) would be eat rice if you want to know 100% they are eating rice..

[Gelukservaring]

That is totally beside the point! `zai' pertains to the ongoing-ness of the action. 'chi fan' may mean eating rice or just eating.

[awunker]

Wouldn't 他们吃饭 just mean "they eat"?

[CorgiCerberus]

If you really want to emphasize the action they are doing right at the moment, one could say 他们正在吃饭。Alternatively, one can use context clues like 现在

[Rafaela_zzy]

I think the English version for it should be 'they are eating'. Because, in Chinese 'fan' is a very general concept, which contains almost everything edible, whereas 'mifan' is the one equivalent to 'rice'. In that sense, the translation is a little bit off.

[rb_9]

Duolingo thinks 吃饭 means “eat rice” everywhere and it’s pretty annoying

[OneWeekata]

Agreed.

[Charlimagnus]

他们在吃米饭 should have been accepted. 米饭 is cooked rice whereas 饭 is just rice

[RenatoArauj8]

The more im doing duolingo the less chinese I understand

[hsinMD]

Why is this in the hobbies lesson?

[MeetroPool]

They are eating.... where is the word rice?

[CorgiCerberus]

饭 is word for meal, and culturally, all Chinese meals consisted of mainly rice. Honestly, if Duo cared about the content of the meal, they ought to have at least given the full phrase 米饭
Other 饭 words: 午饭 (wǔfàn; lunch)，饭碗 (fànwǎn; rice bowl also figure of speech about livelihood)，饭局 (fànjú; dinner party)

[Dennis385858]

Ummm.... 饭 is the word for "rice" while 餐 is the word for "meal", ergo 午餐 is lunch... etc. Somehow things have evolved differently on Mainland China...

[fCx5aUXy]

Shouldn't "They are eating rice." be 他们正在吃米饭。

[Neil614539]

can this mean both "they are eating" and "they are eating rice?" If so, how would we differentiate between the two?

[AntonioB71446]

The correct translation for "they are eating rice" would be, "Xianzai Ta men chi fan". This translates literally to, "Currently, they are eating rice". Zai alone could be correct and understandable but just weaker as it could be read as, "They are at eating rice". Please forgive me for lacking tones

[Tobias360742]

I think if you make the sentence you should make it also with 呢
他们在吃饭呢

[Mtyx.]

I don’t know why this answer has received so many downvotes.. He’s correct.

There are so many ways to say it:
我们在吃饭。
我们正在吃饭。
我们正在吃饭呢。
我们正吃饭呢。
我们在吃饭呢。
我们正在吃着饭呢。
我们正吃着饭呢。
我们吃饭呢。
。。
the structure is
Subj. + 正在 / 正 / 在 + Verb + 呢
At least one of the above needs to be in the sentence to not change the meaning. E.g. you can omit 呢 and 正 and it will still retain the same meaning.
if it’s a separable verb (verb+object) like "吃饭" you can include 着 in between: 吃着饭

[awunker]

That would be "Are they eating rice?"