"我不能说中文,好在我的朋友可以。"
Translation:I can't speak Chinese, luckily my friend can.
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A: ability in the sense of “know how to” (会 is more common than 能)
B: permission/request (use 能 or 可以)
C: possibility (use 能 or 可以)
D: permission not granted (use 不可以)
E: impossibility (use 不能)
According to this website, 不能说 is correct for A and possibly E also.
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22hui,%22_%22neng,%22_%22keyi%22
"I can't speak Mandarin; it's good that my friends can" should be accepted.
Yeah, same thought here and I think other people in the comments agree... "不能" sounds like something is preventing you from speaking Chinese x) Like, "I'm too drunk right now, so I 不能 speak Chinese" or "I just broke up with my Chinese boyfriend, and Chinese reminds me of him too much, so I 不能 speak Chinese" xD
I understand there's some confusion about the 会/能/可以 issue, but I have a different related question -- why is 能 used at the beginning (我不能), but 可以 used at the end (我的朋友可以).
Surely these two verbs are expressing the same thing (the ability to speak a language)? Or is it because 能 is being negated (不能) while 可以 is affirmative? Any clarification is much appreciated!
中文 can refer to Mandarin but it it typically refers to all of the major Chinese languages spoken by the Han Chinese peoples (the majority ethnic group in the PRC/Taiwan) often in written form. When referring to Mandarin itself you'll more typically see things like 普通话 (pǔtōnghuà).
So, the program was correct to reject your translation.