"你吃过油条吗？"
Translation:Have you eaten a deep-fried dough stick before?
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I'm marked wrong for this, I kid you not:
"Have you eaten deep fried dough stick before?"
My crime?
No hyphen between 'deep' and 'fried'.
There is also no need in English to say 'a' deep fried....
This course just gets more and more tedious and silly as you progress. In my English speaking country, we never put a hyphen in 'deep fried'.
The use of the hyphen is correct. It is written as "deep-fried" to indicate that the "deep" applies to the adjective "fried" and not to the following noun. When you have a string of adjectives before a noun they all refer to the noun, so using the hyphen ensures that the "deep" does not apply to the dough sticks.
Not true, hyphens can be used with two words that are becoming one word through frequent and popular use. You'll therefore see many variations used in English all over the world. It starts with dough stick, then dough-stick, and it will probably end as doughstick one day.
There are different uses for hyphens. One is as you describe it, and one is as roman2095 describes it. You were marked wrong for missing the latter kind, which is a general convention (read: rule) and not dependent on usage over time. It's generalizable to any compound adjective that comes before the noun it describes.
https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/the-hyphen
A hyphen is used to join two or more words that together form an adjective, where this adjective is used before the noun it describes.
an up-to-date account
a last-minute rush
a six-year-old boy
Arguably your "mistake" should be accepted as a typo, but in a sense you typed two words when you should have typed one.
But you also left out the article before "deep-fried dough stick" (while also not pluralizing it), which Duolingo might not accept.
618
"Have you eaten deep fried dough sticks before?" Still marked wrong as of 2019-04-15. Reported.
And still no change after two years, it drives you nutz. The answers are so ridiculously confined with any question concerning dough-sticks in this lesson. Very bad education as far as I am concerned. Pain for no gain.
Three main things: Problems with plurals verses singular when Chinese does not differentiate either. Problems with having to say "a dough stick" when you could just refer to it as 'dough stick'. Ie: "I have not eaten dough-stick before". Perfectly OK in English, you don't need the 'a'. Problems with the silly hyphen used with dough-stick. If it is not there they mark you wrong. Why be so pedantic? The English grammar used in this course by Duo is not perfect anyway, it is often wrong.
All pointless punishment that turns you off the course for no reason at all.
I have finished this course now, but still come back to practice. These sorts of things still make me mad, especially when they do nothing about it for years on end.
"Dough stick" on its own without "a" does sound a little weird, though. It's almost like asking if someone has ever eaten "banana" or "orange".
But there's no hyphen in "dough stick(s)". ("Deep-fried", on the other hand, should have one.) You seem to hyphenate it randomly in your comment. Don't randomly add or drop hyphens, and your Duolingo experience will be a lot less frustrating.
In any event, the Chinese course is actually a lot better than it was when it came out of beta. Keep reporting options, but just realize that not all of them will be added.
Is it that, or did you just miss the hyphen in "deep-fried"? Sometimes Duo is finicky about hyphens, and sometime Duo's corrections aren't particularly clear, as the "corrected" sentence will be different even in parts that weren't wrong in the sentence submitted.
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?"
"Have you eaten youtiao?" is now accepted, at least, as is "Have you ever eaten youtiao?".
- 868
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".
- 749
Well you'd say 'have you ever eaten pizza' not 'a pizza' or 'pizzas'. No article needed here.
Either "eaten a stick" or "eaten sticks" would be OK, but "eaten stick" is grammatically incorrect.
- 2379
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
- 868
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.
- 1073
In China, me and the other laowai's called them "oil sticks" if we didn't say "youtiao."
- 868
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.
How can I connote the past perfect without an intention to ask about "before " ?
Ex : Have you eaten the dish i prepared for you ? How
吃過 is eaten before or eaten already. It is rearranged in the English version for grammar.
- 1624
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 kinda want to hunt down whoever was responsible for this lesson's translations and beat them senseless with a deep fried dough stick.
- 1568
Why in the world is "deep" necessary if you have "fried dough sticks"?!? This particular exercise has gone unchecked long enough and it's irritating. You'd think with all of these comments Duolingo would actually fix it
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'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.
- 868
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.
- 1145
"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.
- 2379
I think so too. In English this can mean "today" or "ever before" depending on context and tone.
I mean... I think "churros" should be accepted, way better than deep-fried dough sticks..
While it is used, they're not really churros. It's a different dough, and they're not covered in sugar. They're savory rather than sweet.
"Youtiao" is accepted, though, so why not use that? It's no different from borrowing the word "churro", and it's actually accurate.
- 275
It's conversational English to say I've done this before, been there before, once or twice before. The "before" may not really be necessary but it rounds out the phrase.
Thanks to Duolingo I never ever even want to hear about deep fried dough sticks again!
If you're going to require "baijiu" as the English instead of "chinese vodka", you should accept "youtiao" as the english instead of "deep fried dough stick"....who says that? At least accept "fried dough stick"
Why can't i say chinese doughnuts instead of deep fried dough sticks?
Still marked wrong for not putting a hyphen between dough and stick. Ridiculous.
I doubt it, considering that the displayed answer has no hyphen in that position.
That's what it says on my package of you tiao anyway. "Chinese donut"
I wrote "Have you eaten deep-fried dough stick before" the answer was accepted but it said I had a typo in my answer and that it should be "dough sticks". However, there was no "sticks" option among the words provided so I don't get what's the point of calling it a typo.
There was probably an "a", which you could have put after "eaten". Your answer turns it into a substance, which is like saying, "Have you eaten donut before". It's a little weird, but you can try reporting it.
The "a" is not necessary. We often refer to items of food in English as if they were uncountable resources instead, especially with "have you tried...?" style questions because we're not asking whether someone's had a whole one before, but whether they've had any amount of that thing.
Many foods are widely treated as uncountable and many aren't. "Have you had a(n) donut/orange/sandwich/banana" — all of those would be weird as uncountable (except to the extent that any of them could be flavors of some other thing, but that's a different usage). To me a youtiao is in the same category — typically considered a discrete countable object and consumed as such — and perhaps the course editors agree, but you can certainly feel free to report any alternative answer you think is correct.
Here and elsewhere I notice you use the phrase "uncountable resource". I'm not sure if you're trying to get at anything with the word "resource" that "substance" doesn't cover, particularly as countable things can be resources when considered collectively, e.g. trees, olives, horses, etc., while substances are treated as uncountable without necessarily being resources.
"Have you eaten deep fried dough stick before?" should also be accepted. In English we often think of food as being an uncountable resource (rather than a countable item) and so the article is not grammatically necessary. Regardless of grammar, though, it's a common way to say it and so should be accepted.
- 275
One of the meanings offered (15Feb'22) is "deep friend dough sticks"! Maybe they are a special kind of 朋友
I'm sorry, but who in the world would naturally say "I had deep-fried dough sticks for breakfast today. How about you?"
- 242
The meaning is the same, whether you say 'deep-fried dough stick' or 'deep-fried dough sticks'.
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 think it is because the character 过 (guo) after 吃 is an experienced action marker. This places the action in the past and you can insert "before" or "ever" in the appropriate place to indicate because you are asking if the person has ever had this experience in the past.
I think they accept either "ever" or "before" so it might be that they do not like you using both. Obviously your sentence should be be marked correct. It is also possible that you were marked wrong because you did not use a hyphen in "deep-fried". In fact I think this is probably the reason as it results in two words instead of one for "deep-fried".
I notice if I type a certain word as two instead of one, Duo still lets me pass, but tells me that I have an extra space. Maybe I should have written back then what I was being corrected to.
- 1225
Oh, I will never remember this four-words-name en English :-(
Am I right that in "Gourmet 1" the questions have the lowest mark?))
- 541
The word "sticks" doesn't appear in the list of words if we want to put it in the plural form; i didn't notice we have to put it in the singular because of the "a"
You need to read what the characters say. Have you ever eaten fried dough sticks
- 760
Previous example marks using "before" wrong but in this one its necessary. Completely ridiculous in this lesson. Nearly impossible to get the exact translation they want. They will nevee get mw to pay for this.
How come 粥 is translated as the aesthetically almost unrelated “porridge”, while 油条, which are inarguably doughnuts, are given this weird “deep-fried dough stick” circumlocution?
"Youtiao" is accepted for the English here, and "zhou" is accepted where applicable, so you can always use those.
But translating from English to Chinese, we get "粥" from "porridge", but not "油条" from "doughnut" (i.e., according to native Chinese speakers and English-Chinese dictionaries), and the various applicable Wikipedia pages in both English and Chinese support the 粥/porridge crossover but not the 油条/do(ugh)nut crossover.
And in my own experience 油条 are different from donuts in being quite chewy, full of large air pockets, and never sweet. So "inarguably" is obviously false, though I understand where you're coming from.
Thanks for the tip—using pinyin for Chinese food words is a lot less confusing. I will say, though, that using reverse translation as a heuristic seems like poor methodology—there are many cases where the received Chinese notion of the meanings of English words is divergent (I suspect because of the cultural centrality of Chinese characters and the different dictionary culture this engenders, though I am not a cultural anthropologist).
The most annoying thing is that most of the yime i forget to put 'a' or 'the' and easily get my answer wrong!!!
- 868
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.
isn't a deep-fried dough stick just fried dough?? I don't know why that would be wrong
