"我跟朋友在周末见面的时候，会喝啤酒。"
Translation:When my friends and I meet up on weekends, we drink beer.
125 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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.
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!
864
These discussions help us identify which of the English translations are what the Chinese is actually trying to say. Since we're not Chinese speakers yet we don't know this when the English seems a bit off and can be fixed various ways with various different nuances.
We know from experience in these discussion pages that both the English and the Chinese have been full of errors. (Getting better all the time though.)
I guess is because in Chinese the “会" can implies the possibility that something can/will happens, for instance to be able to drink on weekends. Also implies that an action will occurs.
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.
I was very confused by this. I understood the sentence as you did: a one time situation regarding next weekend. Not a general situation that happens regularly. If you don't mind, how would you translate duolingo's sentence to Chinese?
The mistakes here are so stupid. "when I meet with friends on the weekends, we drink beer"
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.
- 864
It's twenty years since I drank beer in the US but I've drunk beers in other English speaking countries and/or with other native English speakers regularly and we say beers all the time to refer to glasses or bottles of beer.
Why is everything so alcoholic? I've gotten at least 15 beer or wine questions so far.
Yes. The Chinese sentence does not specify the number of friends.
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.
- 864
If it were "we drink a few beers" it would sound more natural. It's only a bit unnatural though in the big scheme of off-sounding English across Duolingo courses.
Is it :
a future plan " when we meet, we'll (会) be drinking ",
Or is it a casual habit " every time we meet, we usually drink"
I believe if 会 is used, then it must be the former one that's intended only.
Am I right ?
I'll caveat this comment by stating that I'm not a native Chinese speaker, but in my understanding and experience, "会" can also express a sort of generalized predilection or conditionality (and here, the beer-drinking is a tendency conditional on the getting together).
To analogize with English, in English it's possible to say, for example, "when we get together, we'll usually have a few beers". This is pretty informal, but it's also pretty common.
Also, in some regional variations of Mandarin "会" is almost just a filler, not unlike "很". In this usage, more specifically, it's employed as an auxiliary to ask about or state the presence or absence of some condition, but it doesn't impart any extra meaning over the version of the sentence without it. Here's an example:
- 61
That sounds right to me, I have not checked the link but it is true that it is sometimes used as a sort of filler, I think Mandarin has quite a few of those, which is one reason why it is both challenging to explain and to learn. To answer the earlier question it can really a bit of both, but more of the latter, it could mean either as well, since there is no context.
"Meet - would drink" in the model answer. Tenses don't match. Either Met-would drink Or meet-drink
It is wrong in English to use ongoing present 'when we meet' with past habitual 'we would' when it means 'used to do'.
"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.
- 864
Think of it as the equivalent of "on" or "at" in "on weekends" or "at the weekend". I've only seen it used for location until now, but apparently it can also be used for time in at least some situations.
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.
Edit: It's much better a year later.
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.
- 1608
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.
'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.
- 130
It is correct to say "we drink water", "we drink coffee". So it should be correct to say "we drink beer", singular!
Water, beer, coffee and egg can all be treated as uncountable nouns, depending on the context.
I don't always drink beer with my friends on weekends, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.
- 864
I don't alway catch viruses from my friends on weekends, but when I do, I prefer anything other than Corona.
Got marked wrong for putting "on the weekends" instead of "on weekends"?!
Took me about 10 times to memorise the English for this.... Because the English MAKES NO SENSE
Why is this wrong? "When I meet up with my friends on the weekends, we drink beer." I mean I'm essentially saying the same thing with a slightly different word order (with an added "the")
"At" is accepted, but some variations of this sentence may still need to be reported.
- 1129
Yes, I'm a Uk native English speaker and I would always say 'at the weekend'. On the weekend sounds American to my ears. I got everything else right but 'at the weekend' was not accepted - DL only wants 'on the weekend'. Grr
"At the weekend" has been accepted for a while, but that doesn't mean that all correct variations of the sentence are in the database. Report any that aren't.
I'm in Canada and we say 'on the weekend', never 'at the weekend'. Where are you from?
You'll notice many British English speakers on this page mentioning "at the weekend" as their preferred usage.
PLEASE GET RID OF THE GOOFY CARTOONS!!!! THEY ARE AN ANNOYING DISTRACTION AND UGLY TOO
- 771
What part of this sentence indicates there are multiple friends? In addition to being confusing, it's also unrealistic.
What is unrealistic? Having multiple friends? Or drinking beer with multiple friends? I didn't understand your point.
Meeting up with multiple friends? Maybe this is a pandemic-related objection.
For "meeting" for the first time, Chinese typically uses "认识", whereas "见面" is an option for "meeting up", "seeing each another", "getting together", etc. "Meet" can be used in the latter situation but it can sound a little stilted for this usage, at least in North American English, depending on the exact context.
You can think of the French "rencontrer" for the first usage and "retrouver" or "réunir" for the second.
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."
No reason. It can be countable or uncountable, and the uncountable form seems quite natural here.
"Meet up", as opposed to "meet", is okay, but the verb tense pairing is wrong. You need "met up", or you need to drop the "would". (Substituting "will" for "would" would make it okay too.)
Did DL just change WOULD to WILL after I trained myself to answer with WOULD?!
- 864
Don't memorize. It's only useful for passing Duoling. Learn. It's useful for talking to Chinese people.
- 595
How common is the verb to "meet up" as it is used here? I heard Chinese people using it regularly (Chinglish?), but practically never heard a native speaker of English using it.
I can't say exactly how common it is, but it's perfectly normal and natural English, at least in North America. In fact, it's common enough that there's an internet-based service company called Meetup that facilitates groups of people getting together.
That said, "get together" is also a common phrase. I'm not sure if there's a closer Chinese equivalent to this, but perhaps "小聚", "聚聚", or "聚会", depending on the context.
- 864
I'm a native English speaker and I use both all the time. It's hard to say when I use which but perhaps I might use "meet up" a bit more if it's a planned but casual meeting with a group of people.
It's possible. However, if you want to make it clearly singular you can say "一个朋友". In fact you can even say "我的一个朋友", "a friend of mine".
My friend (no indication on sentence if this is singular or plural) . This is another instance of you marking the English of native English speakers
Don't take it personally, and please do report all correct options, as some may have been left out inadvertently.
However, do also make sure you have no other errors, as sometimes in rejecting an error somewhere else in your sentence Duo will suggest a correct sentence with other words changed as well.
Are 时候 and 时间 interchangeable? If not, what is the difference in their usage?
Here's what I wrote on another discussion page:
"时间" generally refers to a time period in its more durative or flowing aspect, e.g. the period of time spent on something or over which something is experienced (its measure word is "段", "segment"), and "时候" refers to time in its more discrete or punctual aspect, e.g. the point in time when a discrete event takes place, starts, or stops (its measure word is "个", "individual").
A way to think of it is "during this 时间", but "at this 时候". That may not always work in translation, but it summarizes the general idea. Also, "时间" is a commodity, something we can have, whereas "时候" is a position on a timeline.
- 844
"When I meet uo with friends on the weekend, we go drink beer" marked wrong but should br correct. Reported 06 Jun 21.
The Chinese doesn't say anything about "going" anywhere to drink the beer.
When my friends and I get together at the weekend we drink beer. Not accepted. Why?
- 385
We can say "meet" without saying "meet up". I never use the latter phrase even as a native English speaker.
"When we meet on weekends, my friends an i drink beer" is correct, but not accepted. Please fix.
This is another example of this app's limitation, multiple correct answers exist
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?
- 85
This has to be the oddest sentence I've encountered yet. You can do it Duo! I believe on you!
- 864
Well you just wait. This isn't even in the top 100 oddest Duolingo sentences for me! (-:
Something wrong when we are expected to parrot your translation. This gives us no chance to think for ourselves and come up with our own, often better, translations.
Yes, you should please start your own Chinese teaching app. I'm sure it will be better than Duo and you'll do well. :-)
Well, this question has a lot of rightfully-deserved hate. Same complaints. Reported.
- 832
In English language till now I habe mot heard "meet up" meet up is not used in normal English
The mistakes you make in your comments suggest that you're not a native English speaker, and you don't have native-level English. This isn't a criticism in itself, and I applaud your effort, but it does make me wonder why you haven't phrased your comment as a question instead of a statement.
You're wrong here. "Meet up" is normal English, and very common.
What's the issue? Please be more specific.
If a translation you entered was marked wrong, but you believe should have accepted it, please report it.