"Today is Sunday."
Translation:今天星期天。
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Both are correct, I think. The use of 是 just makes the sentence more "complete", but it's not necessary, especially when speaking.
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These characters for Sunday were not introduced, How do they sound! How many different combinations are there for Sunday!!
Eventhough many English speakers tend to overly use the 是 when speaking, I do think in this case it should have been used and accepted. For those of you who are interested, check out the youtube channel "Everyday Chinese". There is also an accompanying website with loads of free lessons to download and it has helped me immensely since I started studying Mandarin about three years ago. I use Duolingo and that channel exclusively as supplemental learning tools. Good luck everyone!
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I found a site to help but it still bothered my that they threw that word in without previously teaching it. https://blog.speechling.com/5-different-techniques-to-indicate-time-and-tense-in-chinese-speech-and-writing/
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MHart521347 Please see the post by Fekkezaum below which is an excellent summary of the issue.
I'm a bit confused. Is 是 optional for affirmative statements but mandatory for negative statements?
See what I've noticed Duolingo mark as correct and incorrect
今天星期天 - Today is Sunday (accepted)
今天是星期天 - Today is Sunday (accepted)
今天不是星期天 - Today is not Sunday (accepted)
今天不星期天 - Today is not Sunday (marked as incorrect. is it?)
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Fekkezaum you are not confused at all, in fact you are absolutely correct. 是 is mandatory for negative statements.
So all the examples you gave above are correct except for the last one which is wrong.