- Forum >
- Topic: Chinese >
- "虽然那条裤子很便宜，但是不舒服。"
"虽然那条裤子很便宜，但是不舒服。"
Translation:Although that pair of pants is cheap, it is not comfortable.
54 Comments
Yes I was wondering if I should put "it is not comfortable" (which most native English speakers would not say) to match the verb, and I thought they must surely accept "they are not comfortable" which most people would say, but sadly it was not the case. This course requires more input from native English speakers.
Again with the discrimination against users of British English! Trousers! :-)
The English translation is pretty strange. It send to imply that all cheap pants should be comfortable, with this being said exception. Would "those pants are cheap, but not comfortable," be a better translation? Or is the Chinese version making the same strange implication?
I feel strange with this pair of a reason and a result. I prefer to "Although those pants are cheap, they are comfortable." or "Although those pants are expensive, they aren't comfortable." I would like to propose to change the original Chinese sentence.
965
The Chinese phrase is correct. The 虽然, 但是 construct translates to either "although" or "but" in English. If one of them doesn't sound right, you can try the other one.
Although those pants are cheap, they are not comfortable.
Those pants are cheap, but they are not comfortable.
The speaker is saying that the fact that they are cheap is a plus, but the fact that they are not comfortable is a minus. He is not linking cause and effect between the two, just weighing up the pros and cons as to whether he will buy them.
It's hard to directly translate this sentence structure directly because it's not how we use "although" in English, but that's the closest translation word for word. I would say this structure would be used to present contrasting points. The best way to understand the idea of the sentence in English would be like if someone was like "Wow, those pants are cheap" and you respond "Yeah they cheap, but they're not comfortable. I wouldn't wear them". (As always would love if a native speaker could confirm this?)
tl;dr Your translation is right, but no direct English translation quite captures the idea of "although this is a valid point, this is another thing to consider" the way the Mandarin sentence does.
This seems to be a general problem of this lesson, even in the grammar section. Seems like the authors have a different understanding of the word although than me.
If this is the case, this should be made clear with more context. For example, "this is the reason why I don't want to buy them"...
For goodness sake, TROUSERS should be correct! It's even in the dictionary hints! How many times must we report it?!!!
...so frustrating.
Again I get the you have a typo in your answer error. This is clearly a bug in the system as I select the correct answer using the supplied words!
This seems to happen when shortened forms that use apostrophes are split up! This one had "are" and "n't" which turn into "are n't" in the answer. I think the extra space is what registers as a typo.
- 2078
'it is not comfortable' doesn't sound right for pants but 'they are not comfortable' should be accepted.
These lessons are all messed up! Practically every other perfectly fine English translation that I submit is marked as incorrect! It's getting really frustrating!
The course is still in beta! The people making it can't possibly account for everything people will input, and the further down the tree, the fewer people have submitted feedback. It's annoying but if you submit feedback you'll make it better for those after you!
It's not in beta any more, and yet this is still a huge issue.
The people making it can and should account for some of the more obvious variations, especially if they are similar to other corrections that they have had to make. This question is a classic example. Here we have a collective noun (a pair of pants) that is referred to as singular, but really it's equally valid to refer to a collective noun as plural. It can vary with region and context, but most of the people I know would say, "That pair of pants are uncomfortable."
"Although thar pair of pants is very cheap, it's uncomfortable" should be accepted
I've just answered using words Dou gave me:
"Although those trousers are cheap, they aren't comfortable."
WRONG! Should have used "pants" instead of "trousers"!
Damn you Duo!
- 464
'that pair' is singular, then the next part of sentence should be 'it is not comfortable' and not 'they are' There is a lack of consistency here, which happens fairly frequently.
Edited.
It probably does make sense for the verbs in the two halves of the sentence to be consistent for stylistic reasons.
Interestingly, because of the phenomenon in English and other languages called (among other names) "synesis" or "notional agreement", this is a sentence that people will probably have different approaches to, on the basis of individual or regional preference, when it comes to making the verbs singular or plural. With this in mind I think both "that pair is" with "it is" and "that pair are" with "they are" should be marked correct, and it's even possible that one or more combinations of the two conjugations will seem natural to a lot of English speakers.
In any event, as of the original date of this comment, there was a lot of inconsistency in the course as a whole, but 10 months later as I edit, I do see things improving quite a bit.
Pants and pair take the plural 'they are' - that might not seem logical since you talking about one item of clothing, but that's just how the English language works.
People don't bother to say a 'pair of pants' these days; just 'pants' will do, and that takes the plural.
I cannot picture myself ever saying this sentence in English. i would probably not moan about how comfortable the trousers are if they are cheap. Now if the trousers were expensive and they were uncomfortable then stand back and watch me complaining!
He is just weighing up whether he will buy them - they are cheap but since they are not comfortable he probably won't buy them.
Huh? Stopped saying it? When did that happen?
(I agree, though, that "those pants" should be accepted here.)
- 237
It just seems wrong to me to refer to a pair of pants/trousers as "it" (singular). Imagine the dialogue "Mate, I love those pants!".. "yeah I bought it from Target!"
"That pair of pants is cheap, but it is not comfortable." Why is this incorrect?
I guess Duolingo is trying to teach that "虽然" should be translated as "although".
I wrote: "Although those pants are cheap but they are not comfortable." It was marked wrong! This is the third time I am trying to answer this question. I am really running out of options.
I don't think you can have both "although" and "but" in the same sentence, in English...
- 180
Well in this case your English was not grammatical. You can't use "but" like that. The sentence should be accepted as correct without "but".
- 1226
"Although those are cheap pants..." was not accepted. I reported it, as I think any difference in meaning or connotation would be too slight to invalidate my answer.
Is "...they're not.." grammatically wrong? (as opposed to "...they aren't...")
- 180
Both are grammatically correct. If one isn't accepted, submit it as an answer that should be accepted.
- 580
Some of the words for the English translation aren't showing up. This is not the first time this has happened.
Yes, but in English, where you have two clauses and one is meant to be the main or independent clause (i.e. the main clause is explicitly stated and not merely implied), you can't start the first clause with "although" and the second with "but", as that would give you two dependent clauses and no main clause, which is ungrammatical.
So if the Chinese sentence starts with "虽然", use "although", but if it only has "但是", use "but".
I cannot get duolingo to accept an answer for this one. I will use what is posted above and see if it works. This one part is giving me a difficult time. I hope duolingo fixes it soon but I see remarks from a year ago.
Your translation is incorrect for two reasons: first, it would be their instead of there, second, the Chinese sentence does not imply who owns the pants, so it is incorrect to assume "their" pants. They might be his pants, our her pants. But specifically, according to the Chinese sentence, it says: this pair of pants.
