"你吃过油条吗？"
Translation:Have you eaten a deep-fried dough stick before?
53 Comments
Agreed. Chinese doesn't explicitly specify singular or plural in this construction.
125
"Have you eaten deep fried dough sticks before?" Still marked wrong as of 2019-04-15. Reported.
Normally, when I do translation, I just call it a youtiao. Deep-fried dough stick is also acceptable, but it doesn't truly convey what the food item is.
Unfortunately, these are all rejected:
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"Have you eaten youtiao before?"
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"Have you eaten a youtiao before?"
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"Have you ever eaten youtiao before?"
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"Have you ever eaten a youtiao before?"
Almost. Only if it also has "sticks" instead of "stick". On the other hand, if the English uses "youtiao" then that sounds wrong in the plural but sounds right with or without "a".
Either "eaten a stick" or "eaten sticks" would be OK, but "eaten stick" is grammatically incorrect.
- 1214
I don't think so. Consider: "have you ever had elephant ear?" Or "Have you ever had doughnut?" It implies "even a bite of" instead of the whole elephant ear or doughnut, but it's perfectly correct in reference to the substances known as "elephant ear" and "doughnut" respectively. (Trying to keep my examples to other forms of deep fried dough) ;)
"Have you eaten deep-fried dough sticks before?" (with "sticks") is rejected right now while "youtiao" is rejected in every combination I've come up with, so it seems that the article "a" is necessary.
These are 'fritters' in America, for anyone who wasn't aware. Also known as a 'Chinese fritter', but if you are referring to it, it should be pronounced 'You2Tiao2', just like you say 'sushi' when referring to the Japanese cuisine.
This is why Youtiao should probably be accepted, as well as the outrageous, 'deep fried dough stick' translation. It doesn't even say that in You2Tiao2. It literally says oil strips. To deep fry is 炸 or to 油炸.
Just another kink that will be worked out as the Beta grows up to be big and strong. eyeroll
It's also pretty close to an unsweetened churro actually. But the US is the only non-Spanish-speaking country where I regularly saw churros. I've had even more similar things in Eastern Europe but those didn't have a standard English name either.
Most of us doing this course are probably in China, have been to China, are going to China, or are interested in Chinese culture and food, and so we're used to using the Chinese names for Chinese foods that are not common in our home cultures.
On the other hand, in things like phrasebooks and travel guides, "deep fried dough stick" is the English translation commonly used for youtiao. I think it should accept both.
过 can be translated into English in various ways including "Have you ever X" and "Have you X before". Just using "have" on its own in English is more used for the past perfect tense than for asking whether somebody has experienced something.
Basically, you can't translate between Chinese and English on a 1-to-1 word-for-word basis.
- 461
However, in English, when you ask if something has "ever occured" the past is implied in the words "have…ever". Therefore, 'before' is redundant and is often omitted. "Have you ever eaten a deep fried dough stick?" is sufficiant and should be accepted
I've either called them youtiao or Chinese donuts. "Deep fried dough stick" is really awkward to say. I looked 油条 up in mandarin tools. So individually the respective characters are "oil" and "stick," with 条 as "measure word for long, thin things (i.e. ribbon, river, etc.); a strip; item; article."
I guess that's where the course editors are getting this from. I'd really like to hear their thinking on this.
- 461
What's wrong with "Have you ever eaten…"? Same as eating something before
I would say so, but one key difference is that youtiao are never sweet or sugar-sprinkled whereas churros are always sprinkled in sugar. At least in my experience in China and Mexico.
It's very inconsistent that this can get marked wrong just for omitting the hyphen where everywhere else on Duolingo all punctuation is overlooked when deciding if an answer is correct or not.
The translation is bad because it makes it far less specific. I could truthfully say I've had a deep fried dough stick before if I've eaten a churro. The correct translation should be youtiao, just like dim sum is used in other exercises.
I've always either called them youtiao or chinese doughnuts. Never heard of "deep-fried dough stick"
I'm sorry, but who in the world would naturally say "I had deep-fried dough sticks for breakfast today. How about you?"
The meaning is the same, whether you say 'deep-fried dough stick' or 'deep-fried dough sticks'.
- 197
"Have you eaten a deep-fried dough stick?" (Without "before" should also be accepted.
I agree. Also "Have you ever eaten a deep fried dough stick?" even missing the hyphen seems acceptable to me.
- 1193
Can abybody explain me where in this sentence "past perfect" or past time at least. Also please point me to the word "before". This theme is too voluntaristic in translation to English. I hate it !
I kinda want to hunt down whoever was responsible for this lesson's translations and beat them senseless with a deep fried dough stick.
Thanks to Duolingo I never ever even want to hear about deep fried dough sticks again!
