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- "不要吃不健康的东西。"
"不要吃不健康的东西。"
Translation:Don't eat unhealthy food.
37 Comments
Both unhealthy food and unhealthy foods should work. There is nothing specifying that it cant be plural.
Native speaker here, UK and US dialects. Seems perfectly normal to me to say unhealthy foods
It may not sound natural but you can pluralize 'food'.
"Various types of food(s) were eaten..."
Shouldn't "Don't eat something unhealthy" be considered as a correct answer as well?
The phrase doesn't translate to "food" though. "Dongxi" is "thing." I just watched a Shirokuma Cafe (a Japanese anime) episode where Panda ate a kebab stick (along with the kebab). This sentence would be most appropriate in that context.
Actually, the stick was probably made of bamboo and bamboo is part of a healthy diet for pandas. I am joking, as was the episode in question.
370
2020.8.6
Although 东西 doesn't literally translate to food, it is very common to hear such phrases like
我吃很多东西了。
你们吃了什么东西？
她试试许多好吃的东西了吗？
等等...
I think the sentence could be interpreted as an oral form for "I don't want to etc.", am I wrong?
The adjective has more than one syllable and it modifies the noun. Read here for more information https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Structural_particle_%22de%22
"Don't eat things that aren't healthy" was rejected. I reported it as a translation that should be accepted.
- 430
Not really as that's a double negative which isn't really grammatically correct in English.
By the same standard, "Don't eat unhealthy things" is also a double negative.
There are double negatives that are grammatically incorrect (e.g. "The pilot can't find no place to land") and then there are double negatives that accurately convey the intended meaning and are grammatically correct (e.g. "Not a day goes by when I don't think about you.") I believe that my sentence falls under the second category.
- 430
Not really bevause it wouldnt make sense in english. It would have to be "dont eat unhealthy food" or "dont eat unheathily", but since this example has 东西 i guess the second wouldn't be accepted.
why "bu yao chi bu..." for assertive sentence?
is " bu yao chi.... " correct too?
- 430
I guess because the second "bu" is for "un"-healthy. It actually says "Don't eat not healthy things"
- 356
From: englishplus.com › grammar "Healthy or Healthful? In formal English, things are healthful (i.e., good for one's health). People or other creatures are healthy (i.e., in a state of good health)." It is true that "healthy' is used frequently in informal speech when 'unhealthful' is the correct word but that does not make it correct grammar. Our Chinese lesson requires us to learn correct grammar in word order because that is a mark of an educated writer, and it is a pity that it does not encourage us to use correct grammar in English in our answers.
I see. I wasn't aware you were approaching this from a standpoint of prescribed grammar. That's all well and good then.
I'm of the school of thought that language is not used because it is correct, but rather is correct because it is used. That's the very reason why every language is constantly changing and evolving. I also have heard AND read "healthful" in use so infrequently that if I were to see it as the default recommended translation, it would sound a bit unnatural to me. It's not a part of the shared experiences (or in other words, culture) held by me and others in the community I grew up with. I'm not sure if I'm the only one or not, but perhaps this is evidence that the word "healthful" is slowly dying out.
- 356
Dear Andy - you are right that 'healthful' is slowly dying out in usage. I also recognize that languages change over time, but worry about losses in precision, as in this case. In the language community in which I live and read, healthful is still used, but Duolingo has apparently decided against healthful and unhealthful so I will have to 'go with the flow'. best wishes
- 356
'unhealthful' is the correct modifier for foods or activities. The only things that are 'healthy' are things that are alive, e.g a healthy cow, a healthy plant. But the correct modifier in English for something that provides health, is 'healthful".
I beg to differ. I've heard "healthy" used to modify foods since I was a kid and heard this song.
https://youtu.be/KBMxpDbp51A
