"我跟朋友在周末见面的时候，会喝啤酒。"
Translation:When my friends and I meet on weekends, we will drink beer.
52 Comments
Unfortunately, they want "friends" (plural), "weekends" (plural), and "beers" (plural) and "weekends" can't be preceded by the article "the".
I first typed it all in the singular and my answer was rejected. I then typed it all in the plural and my answer was rejected for "the", but it took me a moment to realize what was wrong since "the" wasn't underlined.
I guess "weekends" is more technically correct English when I think about it, but "the weekends" is how I would normally say this.
Ditto for the plurals sans "friends"; this definitely involves multiple "weekends" and by inference multiple "beers" though it seems unnatural to say it that way.
You can't say "the weekends" without a specific context. For example, "the weekends in March". If you're talking generally about the weekend, then you can say "the weekend". Usually you can also say "weekends", but not always.
In fact these expressions seem to be used rather fluidly. I'd be more inclined to say that there's no absolute rule; rather, context will be your guide. If you look at various forums addressing these questions, you'll see that there are a number of contradictory opinions.
Here are a couple of dictionary entries that don't agree with you.
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/weekend
- http://learnersdictionary.com/qa/Over-the-weekend-on-the-weekend-at-the-weekend
Personally I'd probably use "weekends" or "the weekend" for the general case, but I think circumstantial context, or a word such as "usually" or "often", can tip the meaning of "the weekends" toward the general.
334
I can't emphasize enough: this is a Chinese, not an English course. All translations into English that reflect the Chinese meaning should be accepted!
In the US at least, we don't refer to drinking beer with 'beer' in the plural. "we drink beers" sounds extremely unnatural.
So much of the English in this course is not idiomatic/would never be spoken by a native English speaker.
- 1498
This is a bit complicated. First, here 会 means “will, be likely to”. The nuance about this sentence is:
Without 会, 喝啤酒 could be a habit, a decision, or an event. Some but not all possible interpretations:
- During every weekend meeting, we (usually) drink/drank beer.
- On this weekend, we shall drink beer during the meeting.
- On last weekend, we drank beer during the meeting.
With 会, 喝啤酒 could be (still) a habit, or an activity (either planned or unplanned). Some but not all possible interpretations:
- During every weekend meeting, we (usually) drink/drank beer.
- On this weekend, we will / are likely to drink beer during the meeting.
- On that specific weekend, we were going to drink beer during the meeting. (story telling)
So you can see, when 喝啤酒 is a habit, 会 is optional (BUT I strongly suggest that you include it here before you have a good feel of Chinese, without that I cannot tell you why the sentence sounds awkward without 会 in some cases. ;-)
The mistakes here are so stupid. "when I meet with friends on the weekends, we drink beer"
I am Chinese and i can write the same sentence in many different ways. Duolingo is misleading. Anyways, I will drink beer when i meet with my friend this weekend.
Excuse my Britishness but "When my friends and I meet at the weekend we drink beer" is far more natural. "We drink beers" sounds really odd.
Why is everything so alcoholic? I've gotten at least 15 beer or wine questions so far.
"Meet - would drink" in the model answer. Tenses don't match. Either Met-would drink Or meet-drink
"When I see my friends this weekend, we will drink beer." is the most natural, vernacular English translation. 会 here is almost certainly indicative of a future tense that applies to the whole sentence.
It is correct to say "we drink water", "we drink coffee". So it should be correct to say "we drink beer", singular!
Given the dog's breakfast that this course remains, I'm absolutely stunned that I got through this question on the first try.
"When I meet with my friends on the weekend we drink beer."
Thanks to everyone who reported alternative correct answers.
Over a year has gone by and they are not fixing the course. I'm trying to get through to the final module (because the sample Chinese sentences are useful), but then I am gone.
- 444
For some reason, it's correcting to "When I meet my friends at the weekend, we would drink beer." which is just plain wrong. Reported 2nd October 2018.
It is wrong in English to use ongoing present 'when we meet' with past habitual 'we would' when it means 'used to do'.
See my friends. Again, only the Chinese course has these ridiculously narrow English answers that aren't even very colloquial.
They aren't "narrow", they are grammatically wrong. But no-one at Duolingo cares, so why should we?
I and my friends should be accepted the same way as my friends and I. (Not very polite, but factual correct.)
Yet another sentence that could be translated in a hundred different ways but for which they have only provided about two possibilities. It's all very fine getting us to 'make is smarter' but they could at least meet us halfway and do the obvious ones.
"Drink beers" seems unnatural to me. "Drink beer" seems better. And as for "on weekends" as a BE speaker I much prefer "at the weekend."
This has to be the oddest sentence I've encountered yet. You can do it Duo! I believe on you!
I don't always drink beer with my friends on weekends, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.
'would drink' is wrong here, because 'meet' is in the present tense while 'would' represents a habitual action. But habitual action in the present is a contradiction in terms. It will work if you change 'meet' to the past: "When my friends and I met on weekends, we would drink beer.'
agree. The use of "would" in the English translation is unnatural and ungrammatical.
"Meet up", as opposed to "meet", is okay, but the verb tense pairing is wrong in Duo's sentence. You need "met up", or you need to drop the "would". (Substituting "will" for "would" would make it okay too.)
- 113
Got marked wrong for putting "on the weekends" instead of "on weekends"?!
- 78
Took me about 10 times to memorise the English for this.... Because the English MAKES NO SENSE
- 255
Did DL just change WOULD to WILL after I trained myself to answer with WOULD?!
