"We will see a friend at three in the afternoon."
Translation:我们下午三点钟会见朋友。
14 Comments
No 钟 isn't mandatory, it's clear that we're talking about time without it.
I wonder the same thing. I put 下午三点我们会见朋友, which I think should be accepted, unless I'm missing something.
The first time I answered this example i put 钟 in because previous sentences put me in the habit of it. This time I skipped it because the English sentence they gave doesn’t use ‘o’clock’, just ‘at three’.
It was marked wrong (skipping 钟）but I think it must be an oversight because before we learned 钟 we made lots of acceptable sentences without it.
287
In previous examples 点(dian) has been used to represent the word hour. So I guess 钟 (zhong) is a synonym, or close to one in the context of the statement. .
Would 'a friend' be 一个朋友. I would have translated the answer given as 'We will see friends at thee in the afternoon'. Will a native speaker clarify.
I also wrote: 我们下午三点钟会见一个朋友。
I wanted to be precise in translation and without the 一个 it would just mean ‘will see friends’. Sure, it doesn’t need 一个 but I agree that it would seem (to me) to be a valid part of the translation if included.
Sorry, not a native speaker. Have reported my sentence though so hopefully the mods team can accept it if acceptable.
I think it should be accepted tho most native speakers would think that's a bit "wordy" unless you were trying to emphasise that it's ONE friend.
Yes, I agree, most of the time 一个 isn’t necessary and both 我们下午三点钟会见一个朋友 and 我们下午三点钟会见朋友 should be accepted.
It depends on context and how important the ‘a’ is.
- 287
I should be accepted because in previous examples, if it was only one friend, it was written as 一个朋友. If you just write 朋友 it could be more than one. The English question does say: "We will see a friend..." = one friend.
I was confused as well but I think they are forcing us to use it, to teach us that is appropriate grammar and usage... Otherwise we'll keep using 点 solo and flip out when when we're finally exposed to 点钟
"San dian zhong xia wu" is also 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Please update accepted answers
I never hear people put 下午 after the time... because we specify A.M. or P.M. first before saying the time. Not all English phrases can be directly translated with the same word order.
