"你们问老师。"
Translation:You ask the teacher.
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Well in english you refers to a single person or a group of people in case you don't know ;-)
So many exercises uses "you guys" for 你们 and now it doesn't accept it as an answer.
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If a teacher in a classroom says 你们都, it means "every single one of you" or the "entire class." 你们 can be used to mean "the five of you" who are not paying attention. 你们 is still plural "you all" in English, but it may not be intended for everyone who can hear what is being said.
Another user explained in detail below.
You is the proper translation for 你们. "You guys" and "You all" is just heavily used slang which if you report will probably be accepted as alternate suggestions.
Inconsistent. In most exercises Duolingo requires "guys" to indicate "you" as plural. Here it marks it in correct (I only put it to follow Duolingo's pattern). Please stay consistent, Mandarin is hard enough as it is ;)
The sentence is directed at several people: “You guys, y’all ask the teacher.”
Because 你们 means you all!
你 just means YOU!
In this sentence "你们问老师。 They're not ONLY talking to one person. They're saying for everybody to ask the teacher.
Yes it just implies that you're talking to one person rather than several
Just wondering, is this sentence a statement or a command? How would one say 'you ask the teacher' as a command as opposed to a simple statement? Is there any difference in Chinese?
My guess would be the context and the implication somebody puts on it. Like in English "You ask the teacher" could be a statement or a command, but by adding "I want you to ask the teacher" or saying it with more force can make it a command. That's just my guess though, there might be a word or character that suggests it's a command.
I think "吧" Makes something a suggestion, so there might be a word that makes it a command.
I'm pretty sure this isn't meant to be a command but rather an indicative statement, so I wish there were a way to dispute the clarity of this English translation. (Yes, I realize I can check that box, but without an opportunity to explain it just feels like I'm spamming the volunteers.)
While it’s not technically incorrect, English speakers don’t use the simple present very often, and seldom to indicate a discrete action with a specific timestamp. If I say “He goes to the supermarket,” a native English speaker without context will think perhaps he goes instead of his wife, or perhaps he goes to the supermarket instead of the local grocery -- either way these indicate habitual actions. We use gerund to express what's imminent or underway: “He is going to the supermarket.” Perhaps this is stylistic, or serves to distinguish from the imperative form, “Go to the supermarket.” Likewise, “You ask the teacher” absolutely reads as imperative, since the present indicative would employ gerund: “You’re asking the teacher.”
你们 should be second person plural, not single person singular.
In standard English, the singular and plural are both the word you. Many dialects distinguish with y'all, you guys or youse.
I said ask your teacher as in your plural, but it marked it wrong. can 你们 also mean the? I don't think this is correct.
Hi,
Keep it simple
你们 = you (it's plural, but you don't have to say anything to indicate that because "you" is both singular and plural in english)
问 = ask
老师 = [the] teacher
你们 + 问 + 老师 you + ask + teacher
"you ask [the] teacher"
Man good thing there is a way to flag these incorrect Duolingo question things
On Mobile, there are multiple words to choose from, and there is no "all" for 们.
I can only type "You ask the teacher". There is no "all" bubble to put.
Why does Mandarin use 都 (all) when it already uses 们? It doesn't do it in this example, but previously we've seen something like 你们都问
What's the difference between 你们都问 and 你们问?
你们都问 = you all ask (all of you ask)
你们问 = you ask (here, "you" is plural)
你 is the second person singular pronoun in Chinese, equivalent to English "you," used to address one person, "one you," "you and you alone."
你们 is the second person plural pronoun in Chinese, equivalent to English "you," used to address two or more people, that is, "more than one you," or "two or more of you."
Note that in English, "you" is not only the second person singular pronoun, but also the second person plural pronoun: the English translation of both 你 and 你们 is "you." (That is standard English, both standard American English and standard British English. There are nonstandard regional variants, such as "y'all," "ye," "yins," "youse," and "you'uns," among others, which are perfectly legitimate [as variants, but not as the standard], especially where such pronouns are accepted, understood, or even expected.)
都 means "all." Thus, 你们都 means "you all" or "all of you."
The difference between 你们 and 你们都 is that 你们 refers to "two or more of you," whereas 你们都 refers to "all of you (people)." Let's say a boss is addressing a group of workers. There are 20 workers altogether; 5 of the workers have volunteered for overtime; one of the workers won the "Employee of the Month" award. The boss might tell all of the workers, 你们都, to take the rest of the day off, but tell just the 5 overtime volunteers, 你们, to come in two hours early tomorrow, and finally congratulate the 1 Employee of the Month winner, 你. To review:
你 = one you (only one)
你们 = two or more of you
你们都 = all of you, every one of you (but there are at least 2).
In the DuoLingo exercises you have seen so far, Mandarin uses 都 (all) when it already uses 们 (the plural marker), because, "all" refers to "more than one" (plural) in the examples you have seen so far. In other words, why would Mandarin not use 们 with 都? 们 without 都 makes sense, as 你们 is simply "you (in the plural)," but if you use 都, then it makes sense to use 们; because, if you are referring to "all," are you not concomitantly referring to a plural? Without 们, by itself, 你都 would mean something like "all of your person," as if, "all of your being," or "all of your body," or something along those lines: I do not really know what it would mean, but 你们都 makes sense as referring to "all of you people."
The English is incorrect. You do not need the "to". You should just say "You ask the teacher." I'm not sure exactly why we don't have a "to" there. I guess the "ask" means you are asking to someone and another "to" would be redundant.
No one would ever say "you ask the teacher", its unnatural English and it sound "foreignish". Why is duolingo insisting on forming these strange sentences? It's completely annoying and it is hurting my eyes.
Is this sentence telling someone to ask the teacher or is it just stating that they do?
true ni men does have more than one meaning as you said .. this should be fixed or the question should be changed