"我们用手机看新闻。"
Translation:We use cell phones to read the news.
143 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
That's a serious joke. We can't add the word "the" in front of news? This was wrong: "We use cell phones to read the news" 6 nov 2018
Strangely enough, I was just marked wrong for the alternative "We use cell phones to read news." August 2020. You can't win
I used the word bank and put in "We use the cell phones to read news." A simple misplacing of the word "the" can't do trick of another solution or a typo instead.
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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"?
we live in the modern days y'all! we use smartphones now (can you even read the news on a flip-phone anyways?)
Are you saying a smartphone is not a cellphone? I don't understand the point of your comment.
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.:+)
Would it be acceptable to translate this as "We use our cell phones to watch the news". I know that adds information not technically present, but in conversation it might be implied?
Yes that would be acceptable, essentially the meaning is the same, I wouldn't say its wrong, even as a native speaker. For now, it doesn't recognize many vernaculars
i agree with taht because when they tranlate the same meaning form computer they add my computer but it can not be tha same for cellphone , i dont get it they just translate whatever they want , i am not a native english speaker so it confuce me a lot they do that
Your translation is a good English language rendering of the idea offered in the Chinese. Hurray for you.
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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.
Because 电话 is the word for phone and 手机 is the word for cell phone or literally translated hand machine. It is an important distinction- you cannot use a 电话 to read the news.
I think "cell" can be omitted in this context. People nowadays often omit "cell" when referring to cell phones.
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And many millions of us native English speakers outside the US never used "cell" to refer to those same phones in the first place.
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There is nothing in the sentence that assumes the news is in print. You can also watch news on cellphones.
Especially because the last one said I use my cell phone, and now this one can't be our cellphones??
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Agreed. No one in Australia uses the term "cell phone", or the UK. It's just "mobile" or "mobile phone".
I answered, "We use our mobiles to read the news" (just to be contrary; I'm an American and never say "mobiles" IRL) and Duolingo accepted it.
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.
Why is it "phones" and not "phone" There is no plural indicated and the singular is correct English with the same meaning.
Yes, but typically multiple people would not be using one shared phone to read the news; you are correct from a grammatical standpoint, but it wouldn't be the most logical option.
If millions people use the phone to study with Duolingo, that's fine and they don't use the same phone.
That's awesome. There is similar sentence with computer which requires you to type I am reading the news on my computer and does not accept I use computer to read the news. With that in mind I typed We read the news on our cell phones and was marked wrong. Consistency...
新闻 (xīn = new, wén = to hear) = news
报纸 (bào = to announce/inform, zhǐ = paper) = newspaper
电话 (diàn huà) = electric speech = telephone
手机 (shǒu jī) = hand machine = mobile phone
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.
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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.
We don't use cell phones to read the news but we use cell phone to read the news, it should be accepted.
It's not grammatically correct. You need an article ("the" or "a") before "cell phone".
We read the news on my cell phone is correct...because,for the sentence,我用电脑看新闻,duo shows the correct answer as "i read the news on my computer"...only "we" and "cell phone" is a substitute...i dont know...why it is showing wrong...almost the meaning is the same!!
Okay but 看 means both Read and Watch right? (please correct me if I'm wrong) So why can't I say "We use cell phones to watch the news"?
"We read news on the cell phone" is correct English. The Chinese has no indication for plural.
Although the translation "We use cell phones to read news." Isn't wrong in any way. "We use phones to read news should definitely be accepted.
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.
Female voice sounds like xīngwén but the only thing my dictionary has for that is 腥闻 'notoriety' (literally 'fishy-smelling reputation'). As the character-by-character pronunciations show, 新闻 should be xīnwén.
any reason why this translation is incorrect?: 'we use the cell phone to read news'
I just said THE cellphones and they said cellphones and say it is wrong; must be accepted to put articles!
Does anyone know why they marked "cellphone" instead of "cellphones" as a typo? How am I supposed to understand that it is plural?
We dont use the term cell phones in the UK. We use the term mobile phones!
The Coding is still not updated IF ELIF ELSE PRINT is very simple to add THE to the coding script
we use mobile phone to read the news ... is more literal copt from chinese and why on earth it is not accepted?
we read the news withbmobile phone... is very accurate and not accepted...
"we use the mobile phone to read news" -- not accepted. DL must be ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ us.
I put "We check the news on our phones." Since 看 can be read or see/watch, I figured it would be ambiguous to Chinese people too? So then it could be thought of "check"?
I feel like Duo should accept just "phones" instead of requiring "cell phones." After all, who says cell phone anymore? And we all know what kind of phone it must be if you're reading the news on it...
"Read news" (as opposed to "read the news") should also be accepted. Sometimes we say it that way when referring to news in general and not any specific bit of news. Both work.
"we use cell phone to read the news" marked wrong. Id that plural form such important!?
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Can it be "we read news on the cellphone" or "with the cellphone"?
How many users will leave Duo losing hearts without any mistake?
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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. :)
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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 >:(
"We use the phone to read news" What other phones are there today? And why all the 'the' s in DL translations?
We all use cell phones to read the news. Should be accepted. " Women " is plural.
how does putting "the" in the sentence correct, but not putting "the", incorrect? Its the exact same meaning even if it does have "the" or not.
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.
I write "we use cellphone to read the news" is mark wrong. Was cellphone and phones different?
"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.
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I'm frustrated with being marked wrong for my English translations. The options are not enough to cover all the possibilities.
You need to say either "a" or "the" before cellphone (singular). However if you use the plural "cellphones" then no article is required.
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"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. ❤❤❤
Ridiculous. It won't take "We use cell phones to read the news"
It's more correct in English to say "the news", not just "news".
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There's not that much difference between reading "the news" and reading "news" is there?
we use our cellphones and read the news. we read the news by using our cell phones. aren't these the same meaning?
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These days most of them are. Every smartphone is a cellphone but not every cellphone is a smartphone.
So the other one refuses to accept "I use computers to read the news" but somehow this one won't accept "We use our cellphones to read the news". That doesn't make any sense.
Now "use the.." but previously "on my..." if any body gets what I'm hinting at..
I feel like the answer," we use phones to read the news" should be excepted, because of the fact that I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANY ONE SAY THAT! It just seems common sense to assume that a phone is touch screen. It seems like someone without full understanding of english grammar said this
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!
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"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.
Why it is not okay to miss "the" in "the newspaper" but it is okay to miss "the" in "the news"?
Inconsistencies like this is making Duolingo less fun.
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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.