"I always buy milk here."
Translation:Mléko vždy kupuji tady.
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My answer, which was incorrect, was "Vždy tady kupují mléko." The correct answer given was "Zde vždy kupují mléko" (with "zde" and "vždy" underlined), which itself differs from the answer shown above.
Could someone please tell me what DL didn't like about my answer? Also, it would be helpful to know what the BEST correct answer would be, and WHY it's the best. THANKS!
UPDATE - - - - -
Since this was going to come around again, I thought I'd experiment a bit.
The first time it came back, I tried "Vždy zde kupuji mléko. This was still wrong, and again the correction had "zde" and "vždy" underlined. This made me think it might be a word order issue.
So the next time I got it, I went with "Tady vždy kupuji mléko," and this was accepted!
I'm glad I finally "passed," but would sure like to understand whatever rules apply here!
eek, i'm back eight months later, and now i want to say “kupuju mléko tady vždy” i'm guessing no one has written about word order here because 1. it's complicated and 2. there are discussions about word order in many of the other questions of this lesson. but, i reported my answer as an acceptable one, based on the fact that "on kupuje mléko tady zridka” was an acceptable answer on a previous question. if i remember correctly...
Just the word order, nothing else wrong. Again, whatever you place last, ask yourself - as opposed to what? You said: "I always buy milk here" - which is weird - you would only say that to someone who's accusing you that you always steal milk here instead of buying it. Or that you come here to sell it. That's the kind of situation where it would make sense - but then you'd probably use a completely different sentence.
Verbs can be at the end, but it has to make sense to contrast them with something else. Negated verbs are a different story - they like being at the end - "Tady mléko nikdy nekupuju!" (I never buy milk here) - because they automatically contrast with their positive forms. "Tady mléko nekupuju nikdy" stresses the "never", of course. Etc.
Some good word orders:
- Vždy tady kupuju mléko. - I always buy milk here.
- Tady vždy kupuju mléko. - As for here, I always buy milk here. (then I go somewhere else to buy butter)
- Mléko vždy kupuju tady. - As for milk, I always buy it here. (answering "Where do you buy milk?)
- Mléko kupuju vždy tady. - same as above, "always" a bit more stressed
- Tady mléko kupuju vždy. - As for here, I always buy milk here.
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Can a native in czech please explain me why does duolingo seems to prefer to put tady at the end of the sentence?
How does it "seems to prefer"? There are many possible answers here, depending what exactly you want to say. The English sentence can be used in many different contexts. You may be saying where you buy milk. You may by saying that you buy it here always. You may be saying that it is specifically you who buys the milk always here. You may be saying that the thing you buy always here is specifically milk.
In Czech, the focus of the sentence often comes last. It is the Topic/Comment structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_and_comment that most often directs the word order in Czech.
If you are informing where you always buy milk, that it is specifically here where you always buy milk, you put tady in the final position.
Other possibilities:
Mléko tady vždycky kupuju já. - It is I, who always...
Já tady vždycky kupuju mléko. - The thing I always buy here is milk.
Mléko tady kupuju vždycky. - Always when I come here, I buy milk. or I always buy it here and not somewhere else.
Mléko tady vždycky kupuju. - I always buy milk here, instead of getting it for free or stealing it.
As for "Tady vždy mléko kupuju", read my previous comment. Stressing the verb here is very strange, as if you're trying to convince someone that you don't sell milk or spill milk here, but you buy it.
As for "Mléko vždy tady kupuji", it's unnatural because "tady" should be in the second position, unless it's stressed (first or last position).