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- "李老师没有弟弟。"
"李老师没有弟弟。"
Translation:Teacher Li does not have a younger brother.
117 Comments
@nckiy - 'Does not have a younger brother'; or 'Has no younger brothers'.
Have I missed part of this lesson? Sometimes I'm getting pulled up on saying the brothers or the brother - but I haven't seen any lessons on plurals in Chinese yet. They look (and sound) so far the same.
Can someone explain to my why my answer, "Teacher Li has no little brother.", is wrong?
I'm not sure if you've received an answer yet, but in Chinese (and Japanese) nouns are always implied singular (or plural in cases where it wouldn't make sense to be singular). If you want to specify plural, you would need to add a number and appropriate counter word before the noun.
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That is correct. Chinese language does not have plurals, at least not that kind of plurals in western languages. Example 1 - put a number : A: 你有没有兄弟？ B: 有。-- does not imply number of brothers. A: 几个？ B: 一个。
Example 2 - use 们 for multiple persons: 我的弟弟 -- imply one younger brother. 我的弟弟们 -- my brothers.
Yes, I gave the exact same answer (and got dinged) which brought me here.
In Chinese you must specify older or younger brother and sister. 哥哥 older brother 弟弟 younger brother 姐姐 older sister 妹妹 younger sister
Your response is a positive negative "has no" which doesnt translate well in Chinese. Thats probably giving Duo some problems.
Maybe you got it wrong because the brother is younger. Not little btother.
Except that, in English, the expression "little brother" means your younger brother.
SAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAME. Just so you know, that says same over and over again.
Can I say 李老师 when I am referring to an uknown gentleman, as in "Mr. li"? If not, then Duolingo will not allow "Mr." As an answer, as it specifically refers to a teacher.
Besides, why are chinese people using Duolingo to learn Chinese?
English Mr. (or Mrs.) can be a lot more ambiguous than 老师, but Mr(s). can definitely be used with teachers. Many English speakers might translate it as either depending on if they want to sound natural or accurate.
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Hi, I am Chinese and I learn this course to consolidate my Chinese-to-English translations. I think maybe I can learn some idiomatic expressions to improve my English here.
Phil, your answer is correct, sometimes the app just needs more time to be fime tuned for the various answers that can be given
Oh, that's fine - I realise it's still developing - I just thought I had missed something big in one of the lessons.
I understand as a native English speaker why distinctly calling this person "Teacher Li" is more correct than calling them "Mr. Li", and is more informative for learning the chinese language in this case. But nobody in the English world could say this sentence the way it is currently written and sound normal. Maybe both could be considered accurate in this case but have a note that this is only used for teachers when you show the correction/correct banner after the answer is given. Just a thought.
不 indicates a negation through intensions and implies the future, while 没 refers to negations that are physically present and past. 不有 makes no sense, because to have is physical and present. 没有 is also an established character couple.
Also, its stranger still to say he does not intend to have a little brother in the future...
不 is never used with 有，always use 没有。 i remember it as always use mayo(naise)
No. You would need a 了 at the end or more information to determine the tense.
In western culture students usually call their teachers as Mr./Ms./Mrs., so I think it shouldn't be wrong to say Mr. Li.
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''Teacher Li has no younger brother'' was marked incorrect, too. As correctly it suggested ''brothers'' instead of the singular form
How do I know ( in cases like this ) whether there is one brother or more ? P.S. I know there are some mistakes in this new course, but I still like it.
@Brian - If you don't have any younger brothers, then does it mean you don't have one younger brother or don't have seven younger brothers or don't have seventeen younger brothers?
In fact, since it is the shortest format, it is the preferred one in everyday usage.
"Teacher Li has no brother" marked incorrect. I don't think it should be "brothers".
On the same token, we say; "My teacher has no car", not cars "He has no home", not homes "I have no girlfriend", not girlfriends, although that would be ideal :D
I think the problem is you need to say "YOUNGER brother" rather than a singular/plural problem. The singular is fine, as in the correct answer above.
I wrote "younger brother" but I still got it wrong, I really get confused with plural and singular
Unless indicated by a said amount, plurality is determined by context clues in Chinese. There is alot of ambiguity allowed in Chinese, allowing alot of freedom of explanation/expression.
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I typed "Teacher Li does not have younger brother.", notice there is no "a" before "younger brother" and it got wrong. Isn't it too strict?
I don't think so. The program forgives most times if you miss a character or misspell the English. Report it next time and they might include an allowance for a missing "a" in the future. 我为你加油！
What is the difference between the negatuon in this sentence and negation with bu?
《没》 is a negation of past actions and of the physical. 《不》 is a negation of future actions and intentions. For example, 他不喝咖啡 : He does not drink coffee (or rather does not intend to). 他没喝咖啡 : he does not drink coffee (physically, or never has in the past so it might imply he won't now). "Does not" can be ambiguous in English, 没/不 tries to provide some insight.
But doesn't "bushi" we learned in previous lessons concern physical and present?
没 (méi) can be used to negate the verb 有 (yǒu) ("to have") to mean "do not have." You can only use 没 (méi) to convey this meaning. It is grammatically incorrect to use 不 (bù) to negate 有 (yǒu)
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For 没 as “not have”/“there not be”, it only for use with 有, and 有 could often be omitted.
For 没 as “not yet"/"did not", it is grammatically correct to put a 有, but it usually be omitted.
我没（有）钱 ；今天没（有）雨；他没（有）你高。
他没来；他的病还没好。
Mr Li should be accepted as an answer. Since when in English do we refer to a teacher as "Teacher so-and-so"?
Except there is already a term for mister: 先生 (Xiānshēng). You wouldn't want to confuse new learners.
@Rick - How do you know Teacher Li is a Mister? It would be hilarious if someone called Hilary as Mr. Clinton. :-)
My answer was Teacher Li doesn't have any younger brother. Why is this incorrect?
老师 can also be translated as "professor", right? I typed "Professor Li doesn't have a younger brother" for 李老师没有弟弟 but it wasn't accepted.
"Teacher Li has no younger brothers" how would my answer be translated in Chinese?
I typed in exactly what it says the correct answer is and still got it wrong. This has happened twice now. I think the link is messed up.
They are looking for the contraction of "does" and "not" so doesn't is what they wanted
Am i the only one who is wondering what the new word for no is? I thought 'bu' was used for everything negative...
I feel like saying li teacher istead of teacher li should be correct because the direct translation is li teacher.
Because it is as grammatically incorrect as "No a brother Teacher Li has".
Any other question?
Thanks, but it's not a right example. As I know, this sentence maintains the correct linear and grammatical sense, with subject or noun, verb (in this case in negative) and predicate. A well done sentence, accepted at school and used at literature and news. What I guess is Duolingo doesn't accept the form "has not" instead of "does not have", although both are correct in English grammar. Sometimes Duolingo accepts only one of two or more correct forms that are correct in English. My question was actually a rhetorical one. Cheers.
I really don't know why do you think "has not" is correct grammar to denote non-possession; but it is actually wrong in my opinion.
"Has not" is employed in sentences like "He has not gone yet", better recognised as "He hasn't gone yet".
I'm really curious to know which grammar resource advises "He has not a younger brother" or "He hasn't a younger brother" is a correct sentence.
See this link with discussion on this topic https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/he-has-not-a-pencil-or-a-pen.2448528/
Hope this helps.
Because 有 is always negated with 没.
不有 is a wrong construct. Hope this helps.
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没：not have, there not be, not yet
不：not, be not, will not, no, negative
你有弟弟吗？ ——不，我没有。
Do you have younger brothers? No I don't have one.
你是弟弟吗？——不，我不是。
Are you a younger brother? No I am not.
你去那里吗？——我不去 (I will not go there)
你去（过）那里吗？——我没去过(I have not been there yet)
Why won't it accept "Teacher Li doesn't have a younger brother"? I lost a heart for that.
I typed "Teacher Li does not have younger brother" i guess it should be accepted..
(btw the answer is Teacher Li does not have "a" younger brother)
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It would be awesome if doulingo in CHINESE course would stop being obnoxious about english - it's not the effin english course...
"Teacher Li doesn't have younger brother." was failed... even though it carries out perfectly sense of the sentence...
@.Wo - "Teacher Li don't having zero male siblings with lower age than my years". How does it sound? Because it carries the perfect sense of the Chinese sentence.
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Only if you are the same age as teacher Li. Because this is about teacher Li's younger brothers who can still be older than you. ;o)
@Fiyalka2 - As @Wojtek rightly pointed out, this course is not about effin English. ;-) So stop picking on me just because I mis-spelt "his" as "my" towards the end of my sentence. Moral of @wojtek's story was that we may perform whatever gymnastics we wish on our English keyboards; but they should be ignored and our answers should be marked correct by default :-)
I answered "Teacher Lee does not have younger brother." the system insist "Teacher Lee does not have younger brothers." unfortunately it does not specified in Chinese plural form "們". so to have the answer on which they insist it should be: "李老师没有弟弟們。" really crap , so many errors, and then just gives that one fails.
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'Teacher Lee does not have younger brother.' is incorrect unless you add'a' as in 'Teacher Lee does not have a younger brother.'
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youre absolutely right! agree with you 100%. know what? you should...should...a.... report that!!
I just wrote "Li Teacher does not have a younger brother." AND IT SAID THAT I WAS WRONG!!
