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- "Our home is in Taiwan."
"Our home is in Taiwan."
Translation:我们的家在台湾。
34 Comments
Tai is typhoon , Wan is gulf or bay. So Taiwan means the gulf of typhoons.
台 more likely refers to a platform or a flat, as in the west coast's flat natural harbours that the Chinese settlers landed on. Even this was an appropriation from the Dutch name Tayouan for the Taivuan tribe indigenous to the area of Fort Zeelandia which was in modern day Tainan.
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In traditional chinese, typhoon is written 颱風, and Taiwan 臺灣, so probably not the same etymology
Maybe it was a disaster zone for years? I know that characters and words have touching meanings behind them, like the word cocoon in chinese: 繭 The top bit means straw or vegetable matter. The bit that separates the two other drawings in there means house of transformation, the drawing in the house on the left means animal, and the one on the right means new beginning. Touching, right? Think about it. This character means cocoon. :)
when you put two words together it does not mean the meanings are put together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They do, but the Mandarin name didn't come from the meaning, it is only a phonetic transliteration of the original name of the island. Wiktionary has a pretty detailed page on it, have a look.. ;)
it would be nice if it told you what the character you missed meant because I am not learning anything if I don't know why I am doing it.
I suppose that, by they not telling you, you are more curious, and when you finally find the reason it will stick better in your mind.
No, it's duolingo's teaching method. It is a method that is proven to work. If you don't like it no ones forcing you to stay.
No, it's duolingo's teaching method. It is a method that is proven to work. If you don't like it no ones forcing you to stay
so there's no verb in the chinese version of the sentence, right? or is it a combo word...'is in'?
是 means to be (is, am, are) and 在 means "is (located) at / (to be) in". it has the verb to be already included.
so by saying 是在 you would say "is is at" which is obviously nonsensical. If you only put 是 then it would mean that your home literally is the whole of Taiwan. as in "your house is the island of Taiwan". which might get the meaning sort of across but might also get some laughs.
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I wrote 我们 的 家 在 台湾 with my pinyin keyboard and it marked it as wrong. is this a duolingo problem? should i not place spaces?
Well, some words which have two words like 我们 are one word. So, if your put a space inbetween them, it might mean something different. Hope this helps!
