"她的嘴巴很小，很可爱。"
Translation:Her mouth is small and cute.
48 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
It's some traditional Chinese beauty standard. A small mouth, as small as a cherry (樱桃小口) was preferred in the old times. If you Google ancient Chinese drawings, all ladies have small mouths.
1074
That's too literal of a translation and won't work in English. You need an "and" there where Chinese would just put a comma.
- 283
It's annoying that Duolingo is inconsistent in its translation answers. Sometimes 很 + [adjective] is translated as 'very [adjective]', sometimes it's just translated as '[adjective]'. This means that answers are often marked as wrong when they are in fact correct.
You people just do not understand when it should be translated and when it shouldn't. That's because you keep chatting at the back of the classroom instead of listening to prof. Duo!! When 很 links a noun and an adjective (as in 嘴巴很小), it works as a verb (usually translated by "to be"), not as an intensifier. Basically, if you can't remove 很 from a sentence, it means it is a verb and that it should therefore be translated by "to be": Her mouth is small. If you can remove 很 from a sentence, it means it is working as an intensifier and you can translate as such. E.g. 她（很）喜欢玩游戏 She likes playing games (very much / a lot).
Poor explanation. Duo is inconsistent in the translation of the 很 when it is used with a stative verb.
No, just no! I'm practicing this course everyday for a year and I can tell you it's used properly.
That may be how Duolingo translates 很. What I learned in an online Chinese class, however, is that it really depends on whether or not that is emphasized. It is certainly helpful to have your input on how to make Duo happy though, since that it what gets you to the next stage of learning. Thanks for the feedback!
It's not the case. 很 only means very when it's used where not needed. This grammar rule is well applied in this chinese course.
This is a really creepy sentence. If i heard some one say this I would be getting away from them fast.
It makes sense in a basic lesson on body parts. Generally, 口 includes the inside, while 嘴巴 refers to the lips and tongue (i.e. the visible part). See this post: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26652252/%E5%8F%A3-vs-%E5%98%B4%E5%B7%B4
- 1197
他的嘴巴很小，很可爱 is correct too. Reported it. Or someone thinks a man's mouth cannot be small and pretty??
Dear Duolingo,
I don't know if we've told you this hundreds of times, but 他 and 她 and 它 and 牠 and even 祂 all sound exactly the same in a listening exercise.
Love,
Every Single Chinese Student Here
I don't think there's anything wrong with it. This is just translated kind of poorly.
As far as I can tell, adjectives in Chinese usually require an adverb when used as predicates. For example, 我高兴 (I'm happy) sounds funny, so an adverb like 很 is usually required, as in 我很高兴 (I'm [very] happy). Other examples are 我不高兴 (I'm not happy) and 我非常高兴 (I'm very happy). As far as I can tell, when 很 is used in these cases, it's more or less to satisfy a grammatical requirement to make the sentence less awkward, and it takes on a very weak meaning. In other words, it doesn't necessarily mean 'very' when used in this case. I guess for that, one would use 非常 instead of 很.
That said, I still think it 'Her mouth is very small and very cute' should be accepted. Either that or provide an explanation when 很 is taught for the first time.
I don't like the comma splice. Why can't you say, "她的嘴巴又小又可爱" or "她的嘴巴很小和(很)可爱" ?
- 1074
Chinese is full of comma splices, and they are not ungrammatical at all. You'll see them a lot. Your sentence says "Her mouth is both small and cute" which does mean basically the same thing but emphasizes the fact that it has both qualities.
- 1090
OK - this one is just buggy. I typed the CORRECT answer and it marked it as incorrect. Yes, I checked each character individually, etc.
This question is bugged for me when using a keyboard. I can literally copy the "correct solution" from Duolingo and paste it in the answer field and it still marks it as incorrect. The only way to get past it was to temporarily switch to a word bank.
I said: "She has a small and cute mouth", and it was rejected. Can someone please help me with why it was rejected?
- 980
why don't we use 和? Also, often examples like this with the comma "," typically are shown as "also," but not this time. Her mouth is small and also her mouth is cute.
- 974
嘴巴 is pronounced as 'zuǐ bā' here, but it should be pronounced as 'zuǐ ba'. Could any native speaker confirm?
the word for mouth is ‘zui’, not zuiba. You can look it up in a chinese dictionary