"这个七百三十二块五毛。"
Translation:This is 732.50 yuan.
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I don't think this is a helpful exercise for new learners, as it is unnecessarily confusing-- the translation should either be "732 dollars and 50 cents", or "732 yuan and 5 mao" for consistency's sake. I personally think the first option would be a better teaching opportunity (and deserves a note in the "Tips and Notes" section for that lesson), as the equivalency between 5 mao = 50 cents can be confusing at first. I'm a native Mandarin speaker no longer living in a Chinese-speaking country, and certainly that's a tidbit it took me a while to wrap my head around.
Thank you for that, that may have taken me months of banging my head to MAYBE finally get that!
You say: - the translation should either be "732 dollars and 50 cents", or "732 yuan and 5 mao"
I translated it (first time in this exercise) this is $732. 05, because up to now, without your help how could I know!!! ARRGGGG!
"this costs 732 yuan and 5 mao" was marked wrong and the correct translation was given as "This costs 732 yuan and 50 cents." I don't see how yuan is ok but mao is not. Seems pedantic
For those that don't recognise it, the 伍 on the bank note is an alternate form of 五 used in formal financial records to prevent alteration. Similar for other numbers too.
Because some of the simplified numbers could easily have strokes added to become larger numbers, ort of like if you tried to turn a 4 into a 9 in arabic numerals. 一白元 could easily become 三百元 for instance.
863
This course generally in my experience doesn't accept "kuai" for "yuan" in English, so it seems consistent for it to not accept "mao" for "jiao" either.
The problem does not lie with the mao, but with the number. For instance, "San kuai yi mao" means "3.10" and not "3.01".
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If you're using Duolingo on the web rather than the phone app, you sometimes have to type an answer rather than tap on a limited number of elements.
If you install the Chinese alphabet in the phone it will be the same of what you are referring of typing. It's more challenging and I believe engage your learning.
This exercise doesn't actually challenge the user to understand numbers
Is the correct answer RMB or yuan? 1. Characters are too small to read easily. 2. Only someone with previous knowledge of Chinese would be able to do these exercises, because they assume that the student knows the meaning of the characters as the characters are identified. It is not a teaching method for beginners.
I've been thinking that as well. I do have some previous exposure to basic Chinese as well as characters (traditional) and I've wondered how someone with no prior knowledge would do.. To be fair though, it's hard to teach Chinese and Japanese using the Western model, since different characters mean different things in combinations, or different places in the sentence. In the case of Japanese (where I have more knowledge) subjects usually have to be inferred, and the characters will be pronounced completely differently, depending on their on and kun usage, and in different combinations. My training is in linguistics, and I haven't thought of a better way to present either language to speakers of a English. Sometimes the best way is just to be less analytical, memorize the usage in the sentences, and gradually let the language/writing system sink in. Frustrating, but perhaps more productive.
This is my first time learning Chinese or any East Asian language. I can see they're using an inductive method, so I just keep using trial-and-error and a lot of practice to figure out the right answer. I think I'd probably learn conversational Chinese more quickly with the Latin alphabet, but I think it's cool that each time I use this program I learn to recognize more and more characters. I hope to take a formal course soon.
pinyin(the latin alphabet for mandarin) isn't helpful. Mandarin chinese has far less sounds than english and thus many many more homonyms. This makes writing in pinyin unintelligible without prior knowledge of the conversation being had.
Mandarin has 29 phonemes(7 vowels & 22 consonant) but English has a 44 total, almost double that. Furthermore you can put more consonants together to in more ways than in Mandarin. this free link explains it pretty well (i don't recommend paying for their premium content it's not worth it
add https:// to the front of the url i cut it off because Duo has been censoring links to outsite sources for some reason.
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Each syllable can be pronounced five different ways though due to the tone, which English doesn't have. Unless you pretend Chinese doesn't have tones it doesn't really have more homonyms than English. Pinyin without tones isn't very helpful. Writing in pinyin with tones is as intelligible as spoken Chinese. You can't speak in characters. I'm not even a fan of pinyin but it has its uses.
Even if you account for tones, Chinese has plenty of homonyms. The most recent one in this lesson is 快 and 块. Or have fun with 是 and 识 and plenty others.
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It's fine as a teaching method for beginners. It's just not a complete teaching method. You gain your previous knowledge the first several times you see the characters, or you learn them in one of your other courses, books, apps, websites, etc.
[19/07/19] Well I start it from scratch and with the previous knowledge that duolingo gave me I can already identify some characters easily, I still have some troubles when the sentence is too long, but with some repetations it's possible to understand quite well.
毛(máo) means 10 cents. So the number before 毛, multiplies the '10'. As 万(wàn) means '10 thousand'. So the number before 万 multiplies the '10'. Example: (5万) 5,0000 (this is the way the numbers are written in Chinese(from 10 thousand to the following numbers) ) it literally means 5 times 10,000. Or (5毛) 50 (cents) it literally means 5 times 10 cents. If I'm wrong, please let me know or correct me. I just want to help and get people to understand Chinese.
I stopped paying attention to numbers after three. Way too hard to remember. Let's see, yi, liang or er, ban? san? Duolingo is way too fast in teaching Chinese. I should give up and learn from YangYang (YoYo Chinese). She is great. I just hate to give up one of my four languages.
@DavidSpect5 Do you look at the tips for each lesson? I have found that many learners don't look at the tips, and then have trouble. In any case, I recommend using Duolingo in conjunction with some other way of learning which is better at explaining. Learn the theory elsewhere and practice on Duolingo.
Yes, I have ALWAYS looked at the tips when they appear in a new grouping of lessons. They should be considered required.
Duolingo moves too fast for me in Chinese; it's okay for my other languages. I have deleted Chinese and have started with lessons on YoYo Chinese.
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Not really. It's not limited to monetary unit. 毛 = 1/10. There are multiple numeral units. Literally this sentence can be applied for any countable/measureable things.
When 这 is followed by 个 ， this means it is saying [this X ] and not "this is ..."
So, why is it 这个 instead of 这是 ??
I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's because in this case the sentence is referring to buying 'something', that something we don't know, but it's like saying " this one / this thing ' is 732.50 instead of 'this is'. Maybe it's just more natural to say it that way in cases like a purchase where the sentence dosen't actually reference the item?
I don't think I've reached this level of Chinese yet. Bombarding all of this and cramming it into my brain (although i understand the logic) is not really an effective way of teaching.. it's actually demotivating.. I think the numbers and stuff should be spread into further lessons so that the complicated parts are learned later in the course. Honestly, these exercises feel lazily built. I'm reporting it too. I don't think they'll work on it anytime soon, though. But here goes..
If you were to speak Mandarin in Canada or the United States and the article cost $732.50, would the structure of the sentence be any different?
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I would be surprised if there is any difference. Have you any experience of not being understood?
It is also possible that some communities do not speak Mandarin. 20 years ago it was mainly Cantonese in Toronto and Vancouver, but I heard Mandarin has become main today. New York City is very mixed with Cantonese, Hokkien, Wenzhou, etc. alongside Mandarin. I don't know about other areas.
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It seems most "Chinese" here in Australia now can speak Mandarin whether or not they also speak a regional variety. I see more and more signs in simplified Chinese these days too. In Chinatown it's probably 50/50 simplified and traditional and outside Chinatown it's probably mostly simplified. I regularly meet people from Guangzhou, Taiwan, and Malaysia and they all seem to know enough Mandarin whether or not they also speak Cantonese or Hokkien. (Most of the Tibetans in my area don't know any Mandarin at all though.)
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No. Exactly the same. I learned the Chinese for numbers and prices from the Chinese owners of the convenience store next to my old workplace in Australia and we always said "kuai" just like in China and Taiwan.
It's probably a bit different if you're dealing with multiple currencies.
I heard a pause between 七百 and 三十二. To avoid misunderstanding, please note that you don't have to, or must not, stop here.
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I think for this course all the audio is computer generated. That's why characters with two pronunciations are often spoken using the wrong one. Some of the other courses use actual voice recordings.
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Many of them. 了 comes to mind. As a particle on its own it is "le" but in the word 了解 liǎojiě (understand) it's "liao3".
No, the audio all sounds like real people speaking Mandarin to me. Mandarin sounds very different from most languages. It is far more precise, even though many sounds are unique to Mandarin.
It looks complex but its easy and fun and that is because it is in the lecture
Okay, I got the answer right but I still don't fully understand how you know the answer is 50 cents and not just a mere 5 cents?
This question doesn't use 分 which corresponds to 1/100th of a 元. Mainland China has not issued 一分、兩分、五分 coins since 1994. Taiwan currently doesn't have any denominations less than 一元 in circulation, so the only place you're likely to need to talk about 分 is in Singapore, or in overseas Chinese communities.
As an example, the price $1.99 would be informally said "一塊九毛九分錢" or, formally "一元九角九分".
This is way too hard. I can't even remember the numbers, never mind the other characters. I can only do it by copying the English from the character hints. This is frustrating. I'm learning very little.
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"it will be ..." marked as incorrect, the answer given as "this is ...". So, it's not a vendor asking for the money, but rather someone randomly describing how much money there is in a certain place??
My answer was marked correct, but it says I have a type. my answer: "This 732 yuan and 50 cents" suggested answer without type: "Thiss 732 yuan and 50 cents." Guess I am not the one with a typo