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- "他们上个周末见了孩子。"
"他们上个周末见了孩子。"
Translation:They saw their child last weekend.
69 Comments
How do we know 'they' saw 'their child'? All I see is 'child'. Couldn't it be anyone's child? A child? Children? Their children? Or is this just a logical assumption?
Actually, since you (normally) do not use 的 if it is a close relationship such as between family members, it is not needed here.
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100% true, but since the rest of the course ignore this rule, it's not really relevant argument here.
From asking a native speaker I was told de is often exlcuded in sentences when talking about relationships close to the speaker. So you wouldn't use de to speak about your own mother/father/siblings/offspring. Though it does seem awkward they would see their child on the weekend.
I have been taught that it's common to exclude the 的 when talking about someone close to you, but not the 我 / 你 / 他 etc. Given the sentence is without any other context, if it said 他们孩子 it would be clear that it's their child, rather than any random child.
Not really awkward or strange, think of the scenario where parents are going to a college town to see their child for the weekend for instance. This could also work for seeing their child in any other kind of situation, such as in jail or hospital, living away from home, or living with an ex, etc.
他们上个周末见他们的孩子
the app is proving very frustrating plus it doesnt teach any lexis it is just testing everything.
I agree 100%, I only continue to use it because it has a web based version so I can practice during my downtime at work. However, when I'm not at work I practice with LingoDeer it's also free and miles ahead of Duolingo. It started with just Korean Chinese Japanese but I think they've added more. Though i've only done chinese & japanese lessons.
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I think I ended up doing exactly the same as you. When I have 5 minutes or so I'll do a lesson at work. They have only reduced functionality in the last years.
I think I'll also give LingoDeer it a try.
I agree. I'm kind of getting swamped with the new words but it never presents the lexis probably because it's in beta. But even the German rarely presents it. So you end up having to guess or hovering the mouse over the character in the question for the translation.
Yes that is basically Duo's teaching method in all the courses - a bit like the trial and error we used to learn our own language as a child, but instead of a parent telling us what we should have said we get to see the correct answer after we get it wrong.
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I agree 100%. Worst thing is, some kind of lexicon had been available many many years ago, back when Duolingo was in its the testing phase. I really miss this kind of note-making assist. Right now I end up hovering over everything.
The text is sometimes so small, and the lectors' tones so different, you cannot go on without some kind of lexicon.
I also would like the matching activities to trade off between pronunciation and meaning. And I've recently started looking at the other apps too, I like that they teach you to write the characters and have speaking tests
Hm. "They saw a child last weekend" is redjected also. And also needs 'the' insted of 'a'. Is it any rule or just a bug?
"见了" usually means "met (meet) by arrangement." If you want to say "saw (see)" or "met by accident," you'd rather use "见到了."
Since "见了" is a verb with certain intentions, it would be strange that you use indefinite article in English.
Does this make sense?
le is often used to signify past tense actions, and while zuotian alsready specifies the action happened already, the le makes the tenses match. It's similar English where you would have to say you SAW the child even if you specify that it was yesterday. Hope that helped...
They saw a child last weekend WRONG
They saw THE child last weekend RIGHT
This is why I get frustrated with Duolingo, I feel like have my energy is spent learning the very specific translation rather than the meaning
Particles - Why did they use 了 le and not 过 guò since it happened last weekend? I thought the rule was: 了 le - indicates the present, something is different from the way it was in the past and to refer to things that have not happened yet, like something about to happen;
过 guò - is for actions that already took place in the past; 在 zài and
着 zhe refer to continuous activity like working, reading; and 会 huì - is for future actions that will possibly take place in the future. So this is confusing....
The above explanation of 了 le is incorrect. 了 indicates an action that was completed in the past. More info on the lesson tips: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/zs/Time-2/tips
Since the symbols for child/ren is plural or not based on context and we have no context to base it off of here we should not get it wrong for using the plural. I'm flagging this.
Guys, once I translated Haizi as child and it was wrong, saying that children is correct, now I answer children and it says that child is correct.. like wtf
Hm. "They saw a child last weekend" is redjected also. And also needs 'the' insted of 'a'. Is it any rule or just a bug?
了 at the end not aceeptable? from my chinese teacher i learn 了 comes at theend of sentence, 他们上个周末间孩子了
I don't know if that might be a preference, but I've most commonly known the 了 to come after the specific verb (in this case 见)
Well it actually can be both after the verb or at the end of the sentence (or even in both places at the same time). The position of 了 slightly changes the meaning (sometimes the difference is really subtle and doesn't change a thing), e.g.:
我吃了早饭 。- I ate breakfast (I am not hungry anymore);
我吃早饭了。- I am after breakfast, but I may still eat something;
我吃了早饭了。- I have had a breakfast.
Generally the first 了 (the one after verb) suggests that the activity has ended while the second one shows the speakers attitude to the event (not sure if I am clear enough, but that's generally what my textbook says - the thing is it is in Polish ;)).
Without speaking of the difference between child/children that is not marked in Chinese so that both should be accepted, I have a problem regarding the translation of the verb tense in English: 了 is used to marked the actions as accomplished and focus on a change/an action by opposition to the past tense translated by 过 that focus on the fact that the action is in the past and well finished. Regarding all of this, the translation in English should be "They have seen the children last weekend" (use of the present perfect) and not "They saw the children last weekend" (past tense).
Is there a difference between "they saw their child over the weekend" and the correct answer? I don't want to report it if it's wrong but it seems practically synonymous
Couldn't it, out of context, mean that they saw child, like "they saw child THERE" or somewhere?
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It is impossible to tell if it is child or children from this sentence. Both should be accepted
Why is it wrong to translate this as "they saw their children" - it can be child or children? I can't see any indication that in this case it translates as "child". Is there something I am missing?
"they visited their children last weekend" should work. duolingo you probably wont read this for a long time
If I am the speaker, couldn´t it be also "my" child"? We don´t have a context which would tell us whose child is at stake.
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I am so annoyed by these English translations.. There are some Chinese people who speaks better English, such as me, you should let them do this............
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了 sounds like it is pronounced "liao" when it's by itself. Is this correct or just bad text-to-speech?
What is the plural of child??Coz there's a time I ws supposed to translate to English then I wrote children,I got it wrong... then in their question they've used children.
