"Our child likes to read English books."

Translation: 我们的孩子喜欢看英语书。

[canismarko]

Would 英文 be a suitable substitute for 英语？

[Keith_APP]

No problem.

[krstn13]

Why can't I translate this sentence without 的 after 我们？我们孩子。。。
There is no difference

[NathanRasm]

usually that only works after a 1-syllable pronoun

[alisha_barnes]

2020-08-25 Today I forgot 的 and it accepted it. I'm surprised and am curious about the rules of leaving out 的。

[JesusJhon]

You can remove "de" in a sentence IF the proceeding subject is a person. You CAN'T remove "de" in a sentence if the proceeding subject is a thing.

[ElenaHarta]

It actually work the same some times

[megayura]

I'm sorry, but it's yingyu shu is a book about English language, and yingwen shu is a book on English.

[NathanRasm]

Native speakers, do you prefer 英语书 or 英语的书?

[_22S22_]

Definitely the 1st one. I can't speak for everyone, but to me the second one feels too wordy. :)

[JesusJhon]

If you translate that in English: English's books?
Sounds weird, doesn't it?

[KatyainiRa]

Doesn't 看 mean (look) and 读 mean (read)?

[_22S22_]

Yes, that's true but you wouldn't say "our child likes to look at English books usually" It wouldn't be wrong with look but I think read is just more common,

[hvalder]

What about 英国书？ I.e. books FROM the UK as opposed to 英语书, books written in English?

[Keith_APP]

英国书 really is a book from UK; you can use it if you mean it. Books in English language is 英文书 or 英语书.

[PurpleBurple]

So 看 kàn ="read with one's eyes" and 读 dú ="read out loud"

[ID-007]

what's wrong with: 我们的孩子在喜欢看英语书

[Keith_APP]

在 means the action is continuous. 喜欢 means Like and same as in English this is a verb of emotions, which is intrinsically continuous. For a similar reason that it cannot be in continuous form in English, 在 cannot be used here. Removing this character will make the sentence perfectly correct.

[ID-007]

Thanks for the explanation. From the Tips, it sounded that any 'hobby' like activity could use the "在"... So, you are saying using the word "like" and 在 would be similar to a double negation which would not be proper Chinese, correct?

[Keith_APP]

@ID-007 Sorry I missed your question. What I mean is, if we say "在喜欢什么什么", it is the same as to say "Be liking something" in English. They are both not acceptable for the same reason - Like cannot be used in continuous form.

[Mob_San]

no, its not correct, I'm chinese and that no one says that, doling is correct. 在 means, they are doing something or they are somewhere

[deactivated user]

To Read - 看 kàn Vs. 读 dú - What's the difference?

[CorgiCerberus]

《看》 is to read with eyes. 《读》 is to read with mouth (e.g. read out loud-->读课文(read the texts)), or read with mind (study-->读历史学(study history)).
If you 《看一本书》, you are probably reading a book as a recreational thing.
If you 《读一本书》, you are reading a book as you absorb knowledge from it. You might take notes. You might memorize something in it.

[Ariapolis]

Hiya! Your explanation is really great. Unfortunately, I don't know alot of these characters; it'd be super helpful to include pinyin translations. X

[danielh.gt]

我們的兒子喜歡看英文書 Why is this not right?

[PurpleBurple]

兒子 ěrzi translates to "son" in english. 该子 hăizi, however, is not gendered and directly translates to "child". The sentence is asking for a translation of "Our child likes to read English books."(note: not gendered) This is probably why Duo did not accept 兒子.

[GailCroxal]

Must be a problem with the program. I put in exactly what was listed here at the top of the page, yet I was marked wrong and the correct example provided left out shu, which I had put in???