"他们没有女儿。"
Translation:They don't have daughters.
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I typed "They have no daughters" and it was wrong; the correct answer was given as "They have not got daughters" which nobody would ever say in English.
It's an unusual thing to say, but it's not out of the question.
"Have got" is weird for American English, but normal for British. And for "They have not got daughters" you'd need a very specific context, like where you're emphasizing the assertion to somebody who assumes they do have daughters.
Depending on the discourse context, dialect, speech register, and so on, people could say "They don't have a daughter," "They don't have daughters," "They don't have any daughters," "They haven't a daughter," "They have no daughter," "They haven't got a daughter," "They have got zero daughters," and lots of other variations.
Why "daughters" and not also "any daughter" ? How can we know if there is only one or more?
1801
While the sentence doesn't indicate how many, it is more common in English to say and sounds more natural to say "they don't have any daughters", as opposed to "they don't have any daughter".
"They don't have a daughter" would be correct for the singular (as you say the Chinese doesn't indicate how many) The reason "any daughter" doesn't sound natural is because "any" is used in front of nouns to refer to indefinite or unknown quantities; all countable nouns (e.g. apples, chairs, daughters...) are in plural and all uncountable nouns (e.g. money, bread, etc.) are in the "singular".
"Any daughters" is unmarked/default. "They don't have any daughter" I would only use to specifically contradict someone who firmly believes they have exactly one daughter.
- 370
It would be "I don't have a daughter". "I don't have any" is always followed by a plural noun.
This is exactly why I jumped on here. I'm asking a native Chinese friend and will post when they get back to me.
"They have no daughters" equals "They don't have daughters" and should be accepted. The main solution is incorrect English, that is "They have not got daughters." It is not slang,, but wrong usage, and therefore, the correct solution should be "They have no daughters" or secondly "They don't have daughters.
Why is it children 孩子, then son 儿子, but daughter replaces the 子 and changes the order of 儿 to form 女儿? Is it just like that or it has an underlying sense?
- 432
As I’ve noticed all the word pictures referring to females have the 女 symbol (either wide or narrow version) as in mama, older sister, milk, etc. I’m just guessing, but it looks like daughter is made up of 2 units that mean “second female”
Your correction was "They have not got daughters" We wouldn't really ever say this in the UK as it sounds wrong. I wrote "They have no daughters" and I think this should be accepted too
In the US this is also the most common way to say it (at least, in the West)
Does anyone know how to type out nu using an English keyboard? It doesn't come up as an option
- 57
anyone else having trouble typing "女儿" on their keyboard? The only thing I'm able to type is "奴儿“
- 1764
The pinyin for 女 is “nǚ” rather than "nǔ". The u with two dots represents a different vowel sound from the u without dots, so they are treated as separate letters. On the keyboard, you would type "nv'er" instead of "nu'er" in order to get the characters ”女儿“.
I just used the Word Bank, and the only option I could choose was: "They don't have daughters." So I think they are trying to steer us in the right direction of what they want us to learn.
What is the difference in Chinese between "They don't have a daughter" and "They don't have daughters"
I translated it as "They have no daughters" and it was marked wrong; and corrected as "They have NOT GOT daughters". Isn't this the same meaning? And is DIFFERENT FROM the translation above!!
Asked a China native why "They do not have a daughter" is incorrect.
You have to look at that as "any daughters" because there is no qualifier. Only if the noun exists would you use a qualifier (as in: "There are 2 girls standing there" or "there is a girl standing there"). If there is a "non-existence" you would simply use the translation of "any NOUNs" (as in "there are no girls standing there" instead of "there is not a girl standing there").
Language nuance.
In this sentence does it mean that they have two or more daughters or does one count
And how would the Chinese use "any" in "(subject) doesn't/don't have any (object)"?
