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- "December 21st, 2017"
"December 21st, 2017"
Translation:二〇一七年十二月二十一号
32 Comments
Are Arabic numbers also used for dates in Mandarin? In Japanese for example, I have often seen dates written as 2017年12月21日
Could someone please explain the difference between: 2017年12月21号 and 2017年12月21日 ?
Thanks in advance!
I believe that you would use 号 in more casual conversations, while you would say 日 in a more formal setting.
The Chinese writing describing a numerically written "year" now often always uses the number zero that looks like the English capital letter O used to denote the Chinese word "ling". This "ling" means zero or nothing. So the word for the year 2O18 should be said as "er ling shi ba". This word makes more sense than just "er (blank) shi ba". Trust me, this would be way better to understand the sound of saying a year in "putonghua". Thirty years ago the writing of the chinese year was totally different than recently while computers used now make it easier.
What does the "O" mean in Chinese??? This character in Chinese does not exist!!!!
〇 is the same as 0 (zero). It's actually 零 (as Peroznio said), but the character is very complicated to write, especially compared to the other Chinese numbers, so sometimes people just use 〇.
but how can I write that character from the keyboard? I can write 零, but can't write O in order to complete the task.
If you are using a pinyin input system, type "ling" like you would for 零 and scroll until you see 〇.
I think it should be pronounced as Líng. It means zero. However I'm not sure if for dates the sound is omitted.
I have neve4 heard this pause before. I believe it is a mistake.
二十一 is all grouped into one tile. (There's no special reason for that--it's just how Duo made the word bank.)
I'd like to know too. I saw a different source (a youtube course) where they read it, as you would say "two-naught-one-seven". It's weird to just make a pause, how do you read "2001"? A longer pause??
I'm pretty sure it should be pronounced "líng," I don't know why DuoLingo made it a pause.
Accurately hearing the dates when spoken at this speed by the synthetic voice is almost impossible for me. If it were possible to slow it down, that would probably be helpful.
I heard it was pronounced as líng... However I'm not sure if it is omitted for dates... I think it is a software mistake.
Seems picky to make suttle mistakes. There were no lessons given to actually indicate the number order for dates.
In Chinese you need to explicitly mark each kind of time period, so you're essentially saying '2017 year 12 month 21 day'.
why is this incorrect for 2017? 二〇十七 年 I don't understand why 17 is written as 1 and then 7. The month is not written 1 and then 2, but rather 12. Please explain.
"Putonghua" is the answer. It only started circa 1949 and was officially used in 1980. To speak and write the year now is said as individual single numbers: So to say 2018 = 2, 0, 1, 8 = er ling yi ba. However to write it with putonghua they just use numerical numbers and the capital letter O = zero = ling. They don't use the number 0 to say or mean ling. The use of this was by putonghua developing the use of pinyin largely on international use of English and 5 other European languages used on computers. Duolingo unfortunately hasn't corrected this and you don't say ling in the first place. Chinese language has involved and is involving in time just like any other languages. Hope this helps. You should check about the "Putonghua" on the internet. It may help you understand how it has change the use of Mandarin.
Numbers seem to be missing when I have long dates which is forcing me to have wrong answers. Is there a bug on the app for these ones? Don't have issues on pc.
