"医院在这儿吗?"
Translation:Is the hospital here?
91 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I am Chinese,my English is bad, but I can reply your question,if my grammar have some problem,please reply me,thank you. In Taiwan and HongKong you must use the traditional,because the most of people use the traditional Chinese.You can use the simplified Chinese in Guangzhou,Beijing,Shanghai and so on.But some Chinese can know your mean when you say something wrong.
Finally I recommend you use the simplified Chinese .because the most Chinese use it,and write it easily.
I hope my reply can help you.
@cranan i hope this helps ^_^ { I am Chinese. My English is bad, but I can reply to your question. If my grammar has any problems, please reply to me, thank you. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, you must use traditional, because most people use traditional Chinese. You can use simplified Chinese in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai etc. and most people can understand what you mean when you say something wrong. (don't start sentences with but)
(Ultimately / Overall) I recommend you use simplified Chinese because the majority of Chinese people use it and write it easily.
I hope my reply can help you. }
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That's right, although, if you're fluent in (reading) one it's not too difficult to learn to read the other; much easier than learning (to read) Chinese at least!
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It's like British spelling and American spelling basically. Some people tout one or the other as better, but really the major difference is where they are used. In this case, the newer system (simplified) is used in Mainland China and was specifically developed to improve literacy. The older system (traditional) is used in Taiwan and some other places. I personally prefer traditional, but that's because I am coming from Japanese and we did not adopt most of the changes, so Japanese has more in common with traditional. Also, I use Taiwanese Mandarin, so other than Duolingo I see more traditional.
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I feel like those two sentences are somewhat different. "Is the hospital here?" puts focus on the hospital (it assumes a hospital exists), but "Is there a hospital here?" puts focus on "here" (and it doesn't assume that a hospital exists). I think the original Chinese sentence puts more focus on the hospital, so it's better translated as "Is the hospital here?". I think "Is there a hospital here" in Chinese would be something like 这儿有医院吗?. That's just my guess.
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Google's translation seems to match mine, which is either 这儿有医院吗?or 这里有医院吗?.
Can you clarify your other question(s)? I'm not sure I follow, but here is the 汉语拼音: zhe4 li3 you3 yi1 yuan4 ma?
"Is the hospital here" just sounds spaced-out weird. If you are in the building and not sure, it would be "Is this the hospital?". If you don't see the building itself it's obviously not "here", other than in an assumed location or existence sense. We would expect "Is there a hospital here" when context wants general existence, or "Is there a hospital located around here" to mean nearby.
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Taken in isolation, it is to be translated as though the speaker thinks there is a hospital in the general vicinity, for example.
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I don't know if there is a way to differentiate a/the outside of Western Europe. My Chinese isn't that good yet, so if someone knows they can feel free to correct, but it doesn't exist in Japanese or Korean, so I feel like Lomochibi's translation works for both.
@samanta - good question. Let me try to explain as I understand it (disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker).
"Is this.." construct requires "this" (这) to be followed by "is" (是).
So your question "Is this the hospital?" would be more like 这是医院吗.
When 这 is not by itself, but is followed by 儿 or 里, it becomes "here" (这儿).
Also, in the given sentence; "This" is not the subject. "The hospital" is the subject. Whereas in your question, "This" is the subject (and you are asking whether "This" is the hospital).
In the given sentence, "The hospital" is the subject and we are asking whether "The hospital" is here.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
哪儿 doesn't mean "there", but "where". "There" would be 那儿. What helped me to remember the difference between 那 and 哪 is that 哪 shares a radical (⼝) with the question marker 吗.
As for the rest, 这 and 那 mean "this" and "that", respectively, as you said, while 哪 is (in this context) "which". So what you're really saying with 这儿, 那儿 and 哪儿 is "this place", "that place" and "which place" where 儿 is indicating a location in the same way that 里 does. It's also valid to say 这里, 那里 and 哪里. From what I understand, 儿 is more common in the north and 里 is more common in the south.
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"Is the hospital here" sounds like taking attendance. -Mary? - Present! -Tim? -Present! -The hospital? Has anyone seen the hospital? Is the hospital here?
Duolingo is teaching me to value human translation. Clearly, we miss nuances in this sort of universal translation.
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OK... the teacher is over there and the hospital is over here both use zai zhe er. How do i tell the difference?!?
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It's hard to imagine any scenario where you would use this question. Maybe if you were blind and standing in front of the hospital. If you were inquiring if the town/city had a hospital, this question would be very unwieldy.