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- "我们用手机看新闻。"
"我们用手机看新闻。"
Translation:We use cell phones to read the news.
88 Comments
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
we live in the modern days y'all! we use smartphones now (can you even read the news on a flip-phone anyways?)
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
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.
176
And many millions of us native English speakers outside the US never used "cell" to refer to those same phones in the first place.
Especially because the last one said I use my cell phone, and now this one can't be our cellphones??
There is nothing in the sentence that assumes the news is in print. You can also watch news on cellphones.
- 233
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.
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...
- 176
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 news on the cell phone" is correct English. The Chinese has no indication for plural.
- 762
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.
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.
- 247
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.
- 379
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
我在看(电视)新闻。 I am watching newspaper (on the TV).
Why this sentence is in order?
any reason why this translation is incorrect?: 'we use the cell phone to read news'
You need to say either "a" or "the" before cellphone (singular). However if you use the plural "cellphones" then no article is required.
"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. wtf
- 762
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".
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.
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?
- 176
These days most of them are. Every smartphone is a cellphone but not every cellphone is a smartphone.
- 533
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!
- 176
"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
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.
- 632
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.
