"请早一点儿到。"
Translation:Please arrive earlier.
45 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I think the Chinese phrase is trying to reflect a situation in which you are asking someone to arrive earlier than they normally would or usually do; in that case "please arrive a little early" wouldn't work.
857
I disagree. To me "please arrive a little early" can exactly fit the situation you describe. In fact it does so much more clearly than the version with "earlier".
Can you please explain why?
As I understand this your phrase would be something like that: 清早到。一点儿 makes it "please arrive a little earlier"
And still marked wrong as of 17/06/2019, despite being reported over and over again.
This is a badly maintained course compared to many others here. YOU also have to do 20 questions with pretty long answers compared to 10 with much shorter answers in other courses. The other courses also accept typos, and this one rarely does. I don't know why they don't fix a few things here but it is quite frustrating that they don't, even if the course is free.
It's 到, which is really more like "arrive," rather than 来, which is more like "come." Depending on where the speaker, the listener, and the point of arrival is, the listener could arrive by "coming," but might arrive by "going" instead.
The sentence makes no reference to "here;" maybe the place of arrival is "there“ or "at work" or "at the appointment" or elsewhere.
Although I would tend to agree with you, get here basically means the same thing as come.
- 857
Why not also "Please arrive a bit early"? For instance, advising somebody to be at a station etc a little before departure time.
Because when they add every possible translation, there is nothing left for native English speakers to complain about.
Is 儿 a requirement in this structure? Previous lessons said it is not required.
- 1038
They say it in mainland China but not in places like Taiwan. The course appears to be mainly geared toward the standard Beijing dialect of Mandarin.
The course appears to be mainly geared toward the standard Beijing dialect of Mandarin.
Yes, Beijing natives love using 儿. As someone with Hangzhounese heritage, I don't really use it that much.
- 153
Can anyone explain this phrase grammatically? Can i say 请晚一点儿去？ Is this adjective or odverb which comes before the yediar?
早 means: morning and early (used in a sense of time)
晚 means: evening, night or late (again in a sense of time)
去 means: go, go to, cause to go to; and some more meanings
Your sentence has a different meaning.
请 - please
早一点儿 - a little early
到 - arrive
I have only seen one use (so far) of 到 to mean - go to; which also included 去 到兰州去 - go to Lanzhou
- 153
I want to know the place of 一点儿 . Am I right as below? (1）before the nouns 我想喝一点儿水。 (2) after adjectives and adverbs 请早一点儿到。
Yes. In your first example, it means a little bit of. In your second example, it's kind of like a comparative but can also be used to say a little bit. At least to me, it also sounds right to say 请早到一点儿。
- 1170
Does this necessarily distinguish between "here" and "there"? For example, could it be telling someone to "please get there a little earlier?"
Here 到 just means "arrive"/"go to" some understood location, so yes it could be "here" or "there".
I understand that 一点儿 can mean "a bit" but how are we supposed to distinguish this sentence from meaning "Please arrive earlier than 1:00", which seems a more precise interpretation?
Isn't it please come earlier has the same meaning as please arrive earlier? The system considered my answer to this phrase to be false.
a question to native english speakers: can you use sooner instead of earlier in this sentence?
Yes. It is personal preference. I have said it both ways. However, for Duolingo you should use 'earlier' since the character 早 means: early & morning. Maybe they will accept 'sooner' in the future.
"Please be there a bit early" feels a good bit more natural for my English -- though for me, "be there" doesn't really need to be referring to a specific "there" (i.e., the sort for which 那里 might be used), but I do realize that the ambiguity may be best just avoided...
But I figured it worth mentioning nevertheless, in the interest of discussion.
- 1038
As it's translated you wouldn't use the English phrase on its own so it seems a bit odd. However, the Chinese phrase wouldn't be used on its own, either. Both need context surrounding them. If you think about it this way the English phrase here is much more acceptable.