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- "When do they go to school?"
"When do they go to school?"
Translation:他们什么时候去上学？
23 Comments
1036
A different opinion here...
上学 is already a verb by itself and it already means "go to school". Adding 去 is not really necessary. Compare the result by replacing 去上学/go to school with 去吃午饭/go to have lunch.
Yes, you can also say 去上学. FYI, 什么时候 can be replaced by 何时 if you want to sound formal (I'm a native speaker).
什么时候他们去上学 I really get frustrated with how DuoLingo is so inconsistent about where it wants its time versus subject.
- 1036
It is also possible, but which order is more natural depends on the context.
BTW may I ask if this word order thing about time is confusing for learners? I have seen this question being answered and asked many times.
I think people get confused because it's inconsistently enforced by Duolingo
Yes! Very confusing and frustrating. There seems to be no rule at all. Flip a coin
- 1036
There are rules, but they are not difficult. Just Duolingo is not delivering them well enough.
Basically the time can be put at 2 places, either at the very beginning of the sentence, or before the verb (and before other adverbial phrases, if any). It is certainly not more difficult than many other languages.
Yes , it is confusing for beginners. The inconsistency of marking answers as correct based on where the 'time' words are placed, does not help.
Thank you for helping clarify the rules.
I am also confused... It is time, then subject, or subject, then time? I thought either order would be acceptable.
Sometimes "when" is first, sometimes subject first. Is there a rule? Do i flip a coin?
Since 上学 means "go to school" already, really wonder why we still need 去 here?
- 1036
It is a bit Cantonesish for me but I have seen Duo using 几点 quite a lot. So it should be acceptable.
- 559
And here a different version of "time". Wish I understood why instead of trying to just memorize it.
