"他今天突然有重要的会议，所以不能来。"
Translation:Unexpectedly, he has an important meeting today, so he cannot come.
50 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"He suddenly has an important meeting today" is incorrect. It should read "He suddenly had."
i agree, but i could see a very niche use of this:
1: "Why cant John come today?"
2: "oh, he suddenly has an important meeting, so he can't come"
Agreed. I would use the present tense "has" to subtly suggest skepticism, frustration, or showing contempt.
It could be later on in the day and it does not require future tense. You can use the present tense for future purposes. For example, I have an appointment today is legitimate English. For clarity, it might be better to say, "He suddenly learned that he has an important meeting today."
424
This literal translation is so unnatural, it is laughable. DL, you must remember that Chinese syntax is not English syntax. To prevent derision of the translator, the English sentence should be rephrased to read "He cannot come because he has been suddenly called to an important meeting." This captures the complete essence of the Chinese sentence and it is expressed in proper English.
Seriously, as I said in the other comment: this is a language course, not a novel writing competition. To learn a language it is necessary to comprehend how its grammatical structure works, so I actually think that it's best to stick as closely syntax-wise to the original as possible, unless it's an idiomatic phrase or way too unnatural to translate literally.
If you really want more natural-sounding English, you can put it in the past tense without compromising the syntax: "He suddenly had an important meeting today, so he couldn't come" (I just tried and was accepted today - 22/01/17). "He cannot come because he has been suddenly called to an important meeting" is a ridiculously far stretch and doesn't show your ability to grasp the construction of the sentence, besides its general meaning.
Also, Duolingo is a machine, not a human grader - do you really expect it to anticipate all these far-fletched paraphrases?
They should accept many answers that are correct in English, otherwise on the longer sentences they should offer multiple choice answers to choose from. As the sentences get longer it gets far more difficult to get every bit correct. And English is a very malleable language compared to Chinese. Many times I have understood the Chinese correctly - that's why I'm here - yet some slight re-arrangement of the acceptable Duolingo answer in English marks me wrong. Everybody complains about this over and over again, yet they do nothing. Just read up on the many reviews of this course and many people say exactly the same things.
- 816
I don't buy this. All through this course DL has given translations that don't reflect the syntax at all, but rather aim (with varying success) at 'idiomatic' renderings. At some point, there need to be human beings (presumably at least one native Chinese speaker and one native English speaker) looking over translations to try to give some meaningful control on what counts as correct. Otherwise, the learner is stuck in the unedifying game of trying to guess what DL wants (resulting in the near impossibility of a perfect score until arriving at level 1 or 2, after seeing how DL wants you to translate things).
I put down, 'He unexpectedly has an important meeting today, so is not able to come.', which reflects the syntax perfectly, yet is marked wrong.
Is "He suddenly has an important meeting, so he cannot come today." Acceptable as well?
If you want to get really technical, this would not be acceptable. For instance, if the event that "he" was planning to attend takes place tomorrow morning, but this sudden meeting takes place halfway across the world tonight, then "he" might reasonably say that he cannot come tomorrow because of the sudden meeting today.
I realize that the above example is a bit of a stretch, but hopefully it helps. The placement of the time in the correct clause is important.
"Unexpectedly, he has an important meeting today, so he cannot come." doesn't sound like something a person would actually say >:c
Both "He suddenly has an important meeting today, so he couldn't come." and "He suddenly had an important meeting today, so he cannot come." were rejected for me. Actually, I think this example is quite funny because of cultural differences. A meeting is usually arranged in advance so shouldn't be "sudden". Or at least that is the cultural conceit:. And if someone suddenly has another meeting to go to it implies that you are less important, which is the truth, of course, but a little taboo, so people usually talk around it: "He's been called away", or something like that.
- 816
Apparently, the ONLY translation that is accepted for this sentence is the precise wording in the accepted answer. No variations allowed. (E.g., 'Unexpectedly he has an important meeting today so cannot come.' was rejected).
Honestly Duolingo will you please fix your answers instead of adding more gimmicks.
It is perfectly ok to say in English "Unexpectedly today, he has an important meeting so he cannot come." It's what the Chinese says too, but of course I'm marked wrong. This is the worst thing about this course, embellishments are added but not the paucity of acceptable English answers.
We are here to learn Chinese not your limited English
Ridiculous.
I would like to just point out how much i appreciate this sentence. Using all the words in a lesson section together!
Seriously, FIX THE 她/他 ISSUES! It's ridiculous that these have been known for months with tons of complaints and no one has done anything.
- 776
"unexpectedly, he has an important meeting today, so cannot come" is perfectly valid English.
(i forgot to include "important").
Why is "he" needed in second part of sentence?
I wrote "Today he...", but the correction program apparently doesn't allow us to start a sentence with "Today", that should be corrected.
I see no reason I was marked incorrect for opting to state when (i.e. today) at the end of the sentence. The meeting took priority over the anticipated visit at the same time.
'He has an important meeting today suddenly so he cannot come' should be correct
- 1703
"Today he has an important meeting unexpectedly so he can't come" sounds more natural but its marked wrong
- 1255
"He suddenly had an important meeting today, so he couldn't come." is not accepted, but it should work.
At least two weeks now, this 5th Tree presents the Answers not the Questions in a few cases! Good luck for the fix!
Grammatically incorrect. Unexpectedly is past tense, so it should be "... had an important meeting today, so he couldn't come."
He unexpectedly has an important meeting so he cannot come..... In English, we can use this adverb before or after the subject. In fact, we usually use all adverbs after subjects. For example, we don't usuallt say 'Fast, runs the dog' (unless we are Yoda). No, we say 'The dog runs fast.' In this case, you can do it both ways but my sentence is better than yours and should be accepted.
- 443
Argh, my second post on this one. Now Duo is not accepting: "Unexpectedly, he has an important meeting today, so cannot come." Duo is insisting on the second "he", which isn't necessary!
No native English speaker would ever say this. Who composes these sentences?
It is reported speech so it should be in the past and that suddenly just doesn't cut it. It feels like we are being graded on our English
- 1026
What is the difference between "suddenly" and "unexpectedly" ? I expect an answer from Duolingo with one day !!!
- 534
the past tense is more appropriate, the hints should be added and "He suddenly had an important meeting so he couldn't come" should be accepted.
Maybe the true purpose of these courses is to teach the people who make these lessons english
Oh please. These people put in a crazy amount of time and effort to build this completely free course you can take totally free of charge, and you're complaining about just a little imperfect grammar?
And for God's sake - this is a language course, not a novel writing competition. To learn a language it is necessary to comprehend how its grammatical structure works, so I actually think that it's best to stick as closely syntax-wise to the original as possible, unless it's an idiomatic phrase or way too unnatural to translate literally.
If you don't like this "broken" course, you don't have to take it. There are tons of competitor apps out there that charge like $10 monthly.