"昨天晚上他很晚睡觉。"

Translation:He went to sleep late last night.

November 22, 2017

35 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/robloblaw89

"Last night he went to sleep late" would be a better English translation, or at minimum, should be accepted


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/monique692886

"Last night he went to sleep late" was accepted (2021-jan-26)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/JPSeaton

He went to sleep late last night... Is how it reads in January of 2021. Definitely better but the English is ambiguous too, it could either mean he went to bed at a late hour, or he went to bed later than he usually does. Am I wrong?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/robloblaw89

"He slept late last night." is not only strange to say, but it does not match the meaning of the Chinese sentence.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/MaryRynsbu

"He slept late last night" literally makes no sense in English. When you "sleep late" it means you get up later than usual. In English we would say he "went to sleep late" or more commonly, "went to bed late", because usually we are talking not about the hour someone actually fell asleep, but about the hour he went to bed.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/hippietrail

In English "He slept late last night" sounds like somebody working the night shift usually sleeps in the day and gets up at night, but this night overslept. Definitely what the Chinese was trying to convey.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Jules_____

I got penalised 5 minutes ago for saying 'slept' instead of 'went to bed', now the opposite. I know that it's a beta, but at least be consistent.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/mecell

If the correct translation is "He slept late last night," which is a weird thing to say, "last night he slept late" should also be an acceptable translation.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/codewritertom

"He got to sleep very late last night" is also a correct translation, please add to your database. And yes, the English given here is a bit weird.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Jules_____

'Got to sleep' is debatable as it implies success, I'd say either 'went to sleep' or 'slept' would be fine.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/DesmondAllen

This must depend on regional variations in English. It sound fine to me


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/zacharyxjames

Why is 很 needed here?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/StijnBosho

In mandarin you always use characters that describe the degree of an adjective before an adjective. Here 很 comes before 晚 because 晚 is an adjective to 睡觉.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Szentkirly9

What about yesterday night? It should be accepted I think


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/chetlin

My guess is that might work in Indian English but not elsewhere (guessing based on how in India they say things like "today morning" instead of "this morning").


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/DaveUrban

"Yesterday night" should work.

An expression like "today morning" does sound weird to me, but yesterday night is perfectly acceptable in American English at least.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Dargaard2

Why last night is accepted and yesterday night not?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/codewritertom

"Last night he went to sleep very late" is also a correct translation, please add to your database.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/JamesBacon7

i dont know whether "he fell asleep late" would be used in american english but that is what id say and i'd certainly never say "he slept late" to me that would mean he slept in, or that late last night he was already asleep


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/hippietrail

No. The most natural is "He went to bed late".


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/hippietrail

This should really be "went to bed" rather than "went to sleep". Because we're not normally aware of when somebody or even ourselves actually fall asleep, which could be anywhere from the moment we get in bed to a couple of hours later.

"Went to sleep" is used for babies however.

Going to bed and going to sleep are distinct in English but I understand 睡觉 covers both.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Babak346285

SHUI JIAO or SHUI JUE ?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/shiagi

I spotted that too. This seems to be the normal. I checked with google translate and it also does the same. A google search also shows that certain characters can also have multiple pronunciations. Learn the word and the character.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/clarabie

For those asking, 'yesterday night' is not common in American English - and since Duolingo is developed in America, I think that it usually follows American English norms (although, I suppose much of that depends on the volunteers who develop each language, as it seems like a number of the English translations in the Chinese course are not standard American). You can say 'yesterday evening' or 'last night'. Not sure about the usage of 'yesterday night' in the UK, Australia or other English speaking nations.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/BupOfBoffee

The audio for the final character plays as "jué" when you click it individually, but plays as "jiào" when you play the whole sentence.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/shiagi

I spotted that too. This seems to be the normal. I checked with google translate and it also does the same. A google search also shows that certain characters can also have multiple pronunciations.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/saracmk

"last night he slept late" should be equivalent to "he slept late last night"


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/BarAdal3

I was thinking, why can't we use 迟 for "late"? That's what the character means, right?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Ramy.Taraboulsi

How would you say: "He slept very late yesterday night"? My answer was rejected...


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Rarsa

“yesterday night" and "last night" are pretty much the same in English. Why is "yesterday night" wrong? by the way, i was going to respond "last night" but given that the exercise had 昨天 i decided to play safe with "yesterday". Why is it wrong?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/AlexanderUrso

Would "very late" be 非常晚 ?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Helen223115

Went to bed or yesterday at night are accepted!

Learn Chinese in just 5 minutes a day. For free.