"医生是北京人。"
Translation:The doctor is from Beijing.
166 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
625
Then shouldn't you me thin which doctor? Like my doctor or that doctor? Literally translated there is no "the".
460
Honestly, glad i have been amongst mandarin-speaking SE Asians; i too able to identify this
I usually translate this as Pekingese. People still say Cantonese, or Taiwanese. Beijing-hua or Pekingese is one of my favorite dialects with a lot of variations in it even within different age groups, and I happen to enjoy free style rap in Pekingese. It's not WRONG to use this word, it's technically correct. Why does Cantonese things still get to be called Canto everything? This kind of discrimination against the Northerners is rooted in politics.
And being dismissive of established language as just "well it's a dog breed" is really low. Just because Chinese are sensitive to the word "dog" doesn't mean the correct use of the word Pekingese is incorrect. Even CCTV still refers to Jing Ju as Pekingese Opera, because that's correct, and has nothing to do with dogs.
Words have meanings, and Pekingese specifically means Beijing related. I am NOT wrong to use this term, I am correct. It's also not derogatory, nor offensive. Beijing is one of my favorite cities in China, and I was also there during the 2008 Olympics, as well as in Guangzhou (AKA "Canton") at the Canton Fair (business expo).
138
No, the southern Chinese language is similar to “Peking”(北京) like Cantonese. The old name of “Beijing” is “Peking” because the outsiders always went to Hong Kong, Macau and the Southern Cities.
Beijing in history used to be called Peking, not pekin. so, native people from Beijing, should be Beijinger or Pekingese. However, Pekingese is also a kind of dog name. In China, if someone call a person as dog, it is a insult。 "The doctor is from Beijing" really means “那个博士来自北京”, it does not mean he be a Beijinger. So correctest translation is "the physician is a Beijinger".
404
I think it's similar to calling a Scottish person "scotch"... Pekinese is a dog, Scotch is a drink.
Since I can't ask on a card match question: Does anyone else think it would be more helpful to not learn "bei" and "jing" separately? In every lesson so far, two-character words have been taught one character at a time. I don't think it's helpful to learn the words "north" and "capital" when the lesson doesn't talk about them, but does talk about the "Northern Capital". This is just an example- it did the same thing with New York (handle pact), London (feudal honesty), and Hong Kong (fragrant harbor), giving us the individual characters with no indication they were parts of names.
772
"Native of Beijing (born/raised)" or "A Beijing resident (living now)"?
In other words, can a "北京人" be "from" another place? (Ex. "Mr ABC is a 北京人 from Mongolia"--?)
So if I say: "yi sheng mei ren" (医生美人), does that still make sense and mean "The doctor is from America"? Or does it actually mean "The doctor is American person"? Is it seen as the same thing?? I dunno if they will expand on it later but this is just a little confusing why they don't use 国 in this situation.
230
"The doctor is from Beijing." is the correct one. The two aren't the same. It's possible the doctor is from Beijing but is temporarily living in the US.
793
So not putting "the" is incorrect but yet we know the doctor is person and we need to out "ren" at the end of the sentence?
740
It didn’t specify which doctor it is, so I once thought that (as a native speaker) all doctors are from Beijing. Adding 这位 (this) before the doctor should be better.
929
The literal meaning of the Chinese phrase is "The doctor is a Beijing man" but this was marked as wrong by Duolingo, which is insists on using the word 'from' - even though no such preposition is present in the original Chinese.
The dictionary hovers are a bit weird. At first, I was kind of confused with this sentence and when I hovered over the Mandarin it simply had "Doctor's is Beijing people" which is kind of confusing and can confuse people for thinking that his customers are Beijingers, which like me, and others, I'm sure. Can be confusing...
230
人 means "person, human." The sentence actually means "The/A doctor(s) is/are (a) Beijing-ese."
421
The doctor is a Beijing citizen/The doctor is a citizen from Beijing.
Why are neither of these accepted as being correct too?
230
"is" has several meanings, and 是 and 在 are usually mapped to different ones.
在 means "exist, located, at," which is similar to the "am" in "I think, therefore I am." Note that the "at" sense isn't limited to cases for places - it can be used for time and action, too.
Ex. 1. 我思故我在。 I think, therefore I am.
Ex. 2. 我在学校。 I am at the school. (Note that "am" isn't translated into Chinese in this example. See Example 2 for 是 below for more details.)
Ex. 3. 我在未来。 I am in the future. (Note that "am" isn't translated into Chinese in this example. See Example 3 for 是 below for more details. 在, though vaguer than "in," is used to indicate the relationship between "I" and the temporal location, "future.")
Ex. 4. 我在吃。 I am eating. (Note that "am" isn't translated into Chinese in this example. See Example 4 for 是 below for more details. 在 is used to indicate the "-ing" for eating - "in" the process of eating.)
是 indicates affirmation (yes), belonging, fact, existence..., which is similar to the "am" in "I am a student."
Ex. 1. 我是学生。 I am a student.
Ex. 2. 我是在学校。 I am at the school. (是 is used to emphasize the statement.)
Ex. 3. 我是在未来。 I am in the future. (是 is used to emphasize the statement.)
Ex. 4. 我是在吃。 I am eating. (是 is used to emphasize the statement.)
Ex. 5. 我是喜欢纸。 I do like paper. (Note that 是 is mapped to "do" in this case, but it's still emphasizing the statement.)
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"Beijing native" is incorrect? Um.. the literal translation is "Beijing person" this is annoying esp for us free users.
230
北京人 isn't necessarily a Beijing native, though. Someone who moved to Beijing can be 北京人, too.
I think you probably could. The word "ren" refers to person and in this case means a person who is from beijing, however cong is the same thing.
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Your sentence is not as precise a translation to the Chinese one. By adding the word "comes" you are emphasizing a slightly different idea than the Chinese sentence is conveying, as well as expanding the possible contexts in which it could be used (I take "he is a Beijinger" to mean something like he lives in or was born in Beijing - but "coming from" is a different notion).
I agree that "The Doctor comes from Peking" should be valid, but "The Doctor is a Peking person" perhaps not. Even if its meaning is correct and its syntax is closer to the original Chinese sentence, the "[City] person" format is not that standard.
That said, "[City] native" or possibly "[City] resident" should be accepted answers.
404
It's just some kiddy being silly. Just downvote it. Enough downvotes makes it disappear to the bottom of the pile. I've downvoted you and myself, just to help it along.