"我们用手机看新闻。"
Translation:We use cell phones to read the news.
143 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
299
I don't get that article, "the" in front of "news". What is wrong with "We use cellphones to read news"? Why have to be "the news"?
As a native speaker of English you can decide for yourself. Duolingo always uses native speakers of Chinese as caps for their arguments in favor of their position. The proper position is a near perfect fluidity. As native speakers we are the 900-lb gorillas, we can do what they want, but we have to realize that as a corporation they have the right to rip out our hearts.:+)
355
Yeah, I noticed that as well. "We use cell phones to read the news" is marked incorrect. "The news" is used regularly by all native speakers.
870
And many millions of us native English speakers outside the US never used "cell" to refer to those same phones in the first place.
113
There is nothing in the sentence that assumes the news is in print. You can also watch news on cellphones.
919
Agreed. No one in Australia uses the term "cell phone", or the UK. It's just "mobile" or "mobile phone".
Duolingo, please, please accept 'mobile phone' for the English translations. Not everyone is from the USA. Isn't the character etymology for shou ji 'hand machine'? There is no character there for 'cell'. Cambridge and Collins Chinese dictionaries both give 'mobile phone' as the definition. Thank you.
It appears that in Chinese, if a measure word, for example, ( yi ge ), which is a universal measure word for All nouns, does not precede the noun, then it's assumed to be plural. Hence cell phones. Along with tones and characters, we also have to learn the measure words specific to each noun. Oh well, at least we can take off our masks ( in most cases in the USA ) if one is fully vaccinated - lol!
This lesson is so bad and full of inconsistencies. It won't accept:
"We use cell phones to read THE news" when it is better English than just saying "We use cell phones to read news."
Time for Duolingo to do some work on this course but given some of these comments date back to 11 month ago I guess there is not much interest in improving the problems.
870
Both are extremely common but the former has been and can still be used for all types of phones since well before mobile phones existed. The latter can only be used for mobile phones.
The more I advance in this course the most frustrated I get. It seems like getting my answer accepted is a question of chance rather than knowledge. I understand the phrase, try to translate it and either I write it exactly the way the authors wanted me to or I get it marked wrong. This time I got marked wrong because I put "the" in the "wrong" place. Yeah, except Chinese does not have articles and there is no way for me to know in which exact place the authors want me to put it. It's probably the worst course on Duolingo I tried. All of them are quite bad but not that bad.
1229
Can it be "we read news on the cellphone" or "with the cellphone"?
How many users will leave Duo losing hearts without any mistake?
877
I understand your frustration! Looking at your stats, you seem to be a serious language learner and won't leave Duolingo because you lost a heart... Here is my tip: When I learn new content I use my laptop as there are no hearts to be lost, which would frustrate me to no end. I use my cell phone to review material which I have "somewhat" mastered and in that case don't feel so super frustrated to lose a heart or two. Also, the sentence uses the 用 yòng - to use. Your sentence "We read the news on the cell phone." would be translated - I am guessing - as 我们在手机上看新闻 Wǒmen zài shǒujī shàng kàn xīnwén. :)
1229
And now, the HEART SYSTEM. And lazy course developers, who don't accept correct versions for several years, for us to lose hearts and nerves.
Duo, I'll make an owl kebab out of you >:(
Perhaps the plural is indicated in Chinese if there is no ' measure word ' for the noun. For example, ' yi ben shu ( a book ) and ' hen duo shu ' ( many books ). Ben is the measure word for volumes, etc.. Of course there are many other measure words for nouns and the one measure that is a general measure for all nouns is, ' yige '. However, this indicates that the Chinese speaker is limited in Chinese grammar.
"mobile phone" is an erroneous word? Also, in the USA at least, the news consist of textual messages as well as well as a sizable graphical part; do you "read" the pictures or "watch them"? Are you going to bring this test to a reasonable educational level? Or just take it off the Internet, please; this is turning into a garbage.
1782
I'm frustrated with being marked wrong for my English translations. The options are not enough to cover all the possibilities.
126
"We use a cell phone"? When telling me I was wrong to answer "We use cell phones to watch the news.", it gave "We use a cell phone to watch the news." underlining "a" and "phone" to emphasize singularity. "We" using one cell phone to read the news? Who shares a cell with anyone? 我们 indicates plural phones. But then again, on this page the correct answer is given plural. ❤❤❤
1063
There's not that much difference between reading "the news" and reading "news" is there?
870
These days most of them are. Every smartphone is a cellphone but not every cellphone is a smartphone.
I am confusion with the fact that its plural and it said'" we use a cell phone to watch the news. And its not like many people just"watch the news" on a phone. What is a TV for then? And CANT IT JUST BE PHONES? It said i was wrong mainly on that, but i dont understand why it HAS to be that. I mean COME ON!
870
"Handphone" is not used by native English speakers as far as I'm aware. It's common in Korea and I think in Singapore. I'm not even sure if it's common in Malaysia. So it's either a false loanword or only in non-native English. I'm open to being proven wrong though.
207
The problem is with English, not with Duolingo... "I read newspaper" sounds strange, while "I read the newspaper" is ok. "I read news on my phone" sounds a bit awkward but is ok because "news" is not a specific thing. It's more natural to say "I read the news", however.