"我用电脑看新闻。"
Translation:I read the news on my computer.
137 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
电脑 is computer, so the sentence should be "I use the computer to read the news"
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I just got correct mark by added "my" and "the" as next, I use my computer to read the news. The corrections marking point is not consistent and sometimes articles play a key role from my experience.
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English and Chinese do not map directly word for word. In English it works with "a" or "the" or "my" or "computers" and the Chinese does not necessarily have to differentiate exactly.
I.m.o. English language might went too specific that it forgot to include the generalization feature such as this (in my language, the word 'computer' is treated as any object having a certain similar feature {any object that compute maybe}, so we don't need to further specify by putting 'a', 'the', 's at the back' or other addition.. We could build a general statement like 'I use computer to read news') *and also a 3rd single pronoun for any gender
Tho I'm not a native English speaker, I'm saying this because I like the English language and hope it can add these 2 features
I genuinely think it's more an issue with accepted English answers. I completely understood the sentence but without 'wo de' assumed the better answer was the computer. I do appreciate that this course is young though and there's a lot of junk to sort through when checking suggested answers!
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"I use my computer to read the news" ought to be accepted, given that 用 is "use".
agreed. I put 'I use the computer to see the news' and it was marked as wrong. This seems incorrect to me.
I also put see the news and was shocked to get it wrong. First of all, a strict translation of read would be du, not kan. Secondly, I only sometimes actually read news on my computer... More often I watch how news video.
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If you're trying to refer to "A day in the life" by Beatles, the lyrics are: "I read the news today, oh boy."
看 means either "read" or "watch." So I watch news on my computer is equally correct, but it was marked wrong. The hover hints also list "read" and "watch" for 看 In this day and age it is possible both to read or to watch news on the computer.
"I use computers to read the news" marked as wrong. 电脑 can be plural here, yeah?
The translation
I watch the news on the computer
should also be accepted. Reported
Why must it be "read THE news"? Can't say "read news" either? Pretty sure that's ok in English and also helpful to Chinese speaking to remove these extra unnecessary articles.
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It's in the same place "the" and "a" are. In English one of these or something similar is mandatory. Not so in Chinese. So picking any of them should be marked correct.
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There's a bunch of ways to translate this to English which are equally real. More literal doesn't mean more real.
I said "I read my news on the computer" and it counted it wrong. I see how it would process the answer as wrong but it still makes sense to me.
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That's a fine idiomatic English answer in my opinion. You should report it and get it added.
I read news on the computer
Vs I read the news on my computer
Second one is correct apprently, but we didnt specify computer ownership
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"I read the news on a computer" should be accepted since in the Chinese sentence the indefinite article is implied in the absence of the definite article. I reported it.
I think "I use the computer to view the news." should be accepted because this sentence is ambiguous as to whether it involves "reading" or "watching".
("I use the computer to read the news." was the suggested answer.)
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You can't always resolve the ambiguities. The Chinese is also ambiguous that it could be "I use a computer", "I use my computer", "I use computers", etc.
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The use of possessives for translating into English is inconsistent across this exercise. "We use our cellphones to read the news." is incorrect, but "I use a computer to read the news" is incorrect here.
So "I use my cellphone to read the news" is wrong, but "I use my computer to read the news" is right? You guys have to fix the system.
They are so inconsistent in grading. Sometimes they mark it wrong other time correvt. Im so tired of this
The "my computer" in the correct answer is not in the chinese sentence, there it's only computer.
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This sentence is completely broken. Doesn't accept "I use computer to read the news" as well as "I read news on a computer"
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still not accepted on in January 22!!! Duolingo should fix this issue with accepted variants with articles!!!!
The above translation seems wrong. There is no 'my' in the original Chinese sentence.
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In English you must use either some kind of determiner before the noun, or the noun must be plural:
- I use a computer ...
- I use my computer ...
- I use the computer ...
- I use this computer ...
- I use computers ...
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This applies if you understand the word "computer" as strictly the physical object. But can't it be argued that this sentence uses the word "computer" as a manner in which the news are consumed? It's not really countable then.
There's no de for my computer. It literally translates as I use computer to read the news
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Literally there's no "to" or "the" either. But the idea is to translate it into normal English.
I thought the idea is to learn Chinese language, the way it works. And not to learn to translate into English in ways majority of English speakers see as ‘normal’. Also there is “I want to use my phone to play games” in the same skill.
No native English speaker would be inclined to say that sentence - speaking as one! One doesn't 'read' the news from a computer - one, 'gets', 'watches', 'listens to'... but never 'reads'.
How do you suppose we acquire information from a news article, by just looking at it? LOL
The character 用 was not introduced yet in this course and tge translation of this sentence gives no clue what it might mean.
It is weird as other answer like “ use my computer to read news” should be accepted
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The owner of the computer is not specified. For example it covers the situation when someone use the computer in the internet cafe. The translation is wrong.
There is no possessive word in this sentence (de) therefore it should translate as: I use a computer to read the news. Not MY computer.
Shouldn't "I use the computer to read news" be accepted? It basically is the same meaning...
I said "I use the computer to watch the news" Can someone explain how this is incorrect ? I Mean how do i differentiate between watch and read if it's both kan ? Thanks in advance. J
"i use the computer to read news" literally. that's the f...ing chinese sentence and it's not accepted. super-llama...
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My answer: "I use the computer to watch the news." was marked wrong. Why is it, "...read the news " and not, "watch the news"?
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Duolingo's answer is wrong!! There is no reference that the computer being used is"my computer, could be any computer!" My answer was "I use the computer to read news" should be perfectly ok.
The meaning of both is the same but i use my computer to watch the news is REALLY closer to the chinese sentence.
What part of the sentence means "my computer" and not "the computer" I don't understand what part tells you possession...
Those who are translating this as "the" computer, or "a" computer are entirely correct. There is no possessive pronoun in this sentence. The "my" can be inferred. If Duolingo ALWAYS accepted inferred possession in its translations, this might not be a problem, but it does not. It is likely to mark something like "my" mother wrong when the sentence is something like 爸爸给我告斯了我得是干净 and you translate it "(my) father told me that I must be clean" They are likely to mark it wrong because you put "my" in the sentence. The Chinese course is riddled with these inconsistencies. They have gotten better, but they are still extremely aggravating.
Why does 看 mean "to read" in this sentence? Why not "to watch"? How to say "watch" I watch news on my computer
It should be the computer , because wenn it my Computer it should say"wo de dian nao"
The computer should be accepted, there is no mention of "my" in the Chinese sentence
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English "read" is both present tense and past tense. Chinese can talk about the past either with or without 了.