"我的姐姐很忙。"
Translation:My older sister is busy.
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I believe so. They have 4 different words for older sister, younger sister, older brother and younger brother
How about just a sister? For example, if you don't know if she's older or not, or she's your twin.
Although 姐姐 means "older sister", in this sentence it would be legit to translate it as sister only, as that sounds natural in English. Of course, the information that the sister is older is lost in translation then. But especially when translating a novel where someone talks about their sister, you would in most cases use only "sister" in English instead of "older sister" to make it sound more natural.
On the other hand, when someone asks: "你有姐姐吗？", they specifically ask for older sisters, and then it should be translated in all cases.
304
I did sister and i still got it correct. But it also said another transaction and it said i could have used older sister.
But I wrote older sister and it's still wrong from the point of duolingo's view
Nature is right, family terms can be very specific even when referring to mother's side vs father's side of the family. And people address each other (even those not related) "older sister" "older brother" "uncle" "aunt" etc out of respect, so it is VERY important you know the difference. It is a VERY commonly used thing for chinese culture.
是 is specifically used for equality, eg "She is my older sister", not for descriptive "is" sentences (noun is adjective). In that case, you need another word, usually 很 if no other adverb-ish word is appropriate.
As an example of another word to use, 她很忙 could be negated as 她不忙. I believe 她最忙 would be the correct way to say that she is the busiest as another example.
Because in Chinese they don't use "Is" for something that already is something. For example, You don't say " She is very pretty" If she's already to be pretty! instead, you say Tā hěn piàoliang 她很漂亮 literal translation means "She very pretty". I know for us that makes no sense, but that's just how Chinese works.
As best I can understand from reading the replies to your question:
- 是 (shì): Must be followed by a noun
- 很 (hen): Must be followed by an adjective
So since 忙 (mang) is an adjective, 很 must be used
- 1412
So to sum up, noun + is + noun = noun shi noun, noun + is + adjective = noun hao adjective.
- 1412
"Such as," "pretty much," "sit down," "eat it all up": sometimes English, too, uses two words together when one could express the whole meaning. It's for the sake of rhythm; creates a sense of completion.
it can, if you negate it with a "bù" or use it in a yes/no question mit "ma" at the end. Else it needs"hên". Don't overthink it, it's just a rule of this language. I believe there are a couple other adverbs that can be used onstead of the "hên" but since I haven't learned that yet it's only a guess from watching chinese series. Cheers!
And how do you pluralize sister? And let's say you have three sisters and only one is younger than you, how would you say older sisters?
- 1802
There isn't a plural form of the term. You'd just say the number of older or younger sisters you have followed by the classifier for the number of people followed by the older or younger sister term. This is the same with all nouns in Chinese. You'd just say the number of things followed by the classifier for that thing followed by the term for that thing.
There is a long pause between 姐姐 and 很忙. Does it sound natural for native speakers?
I was taught that for 我 or 你, the 的 can be omitted before the word for family members. Is this right?
- 1937
That is correct. Family members do not need the possessive 的. It can sometimes also be extended to a boyfriend or girlfriend (男朋友 and 女朋友。)
I assume with "men" the same way we pluralize any other word but i could be wrong?
- 1937
们 can only be used with pronouns like 你 我 他 她 and a few animate nouns. You do not know if a noun is plural in Chinese unless a number or unit is specified. If I say "我有姐姐。" you would know I had at least one older sister, but not the exact number.
- 529
None. If the number of sisters is important you will have to be explicit and say 1 sister (一位姐姐) or 2 sisters (两位姐姐) or many sisters etc. There is however a distinction between younger sister (妹妹) and older sister (姐姐).
Just checking: Would the pronunciation be "wò de jié jié hèn máng" with the changes in tones? Like the third one gets pronounced like a fourth one within a sentence (for wo and hen) except when followed by another third tone (as is the the case for both jie-sounds), then it gets pronounced as a second tone?