"None of them are American."
Translation:她们都不是美国人。
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If you left 都 out, the sentence would make perfect sense but the meaning would change slightly, it'd be something like "They aren't American." 他们都是美国人 - They are all Americans / All of them are Americans. 他们都不是美国人 - They are all not Americans / None of them are American.
都 generally means "all", but when it's followed by a negative word like 不 or 没, it means "none".
679
Without it, it would translate more as "They are not American" -- as in, they are not all American; perhaps some of them are and some aren't. The extra word indicates that none of them are American.
994
Hi Duo, I don't know where to put this request but please let us review the pronunciation of the correct phrases in these Discussion pages, just as in the other language courses. Since Chinese is a tonal language, hearing the sentences and associating the tones for each word is the best way to learn it. I hope the moderators can read this, it'll help us a lot. Thanks.
964
Consider this important distinction: 她们都不是美国人。(lit. they all are not American) = None of them are American. VS 她们不都是美国人。(lit. they aren’t all American) = Some of them are not American.
Moving 都 changes the meaning quite significantly.