"I went home late yesterday."

Translation: 我昨天很晚回家。

[JonnyEightyFour]

I wrote 昨天很晚我回家 and it was marked wrong, is this duo being funny about word order or am I just wrong? I'm thinking that 很晚 constitutes time ibformation and thus should go at the start of the sentence, but that this is maybe where I'm wrong?

[shimmyns]

I dont have an answer, just sharing my thoughts here.
I noticed frequently the word order in sentences to be :

<h1>time #subject #adjective #verb #object</h1>

"late" could be considered an #adjective in this sentence?(and not #time)...i guess due to usage of 很 character) and therefore it should be placed in front of the #verb and not between #time and #subject

so we have:

<h1>time #subject #adjective #verb #object</h1> <h1>昨天 #我 #很晚 #回 #家</h1>

note: #time and #subject can change the position in word order in a sentence, but #adjective #verb and #object order remains the same...

P.S. hopefully some native can confirm this otherwise I have no idea the hell is going on here xD

[kuyaC]

I got the same question.

[josueetcom]

"late" is an adverb in this case modifying the verb 回. You don't say "Yesterday late, I arrived" you say "Yesterday, I arrived late".

[maxedeye]

If there's 我 at the beginning it's exactly the correct answer

[MrsOrton]

What is the word order? Day, subject, time, complement? Or subject, day, time, complement? Different sentences seem to be asking for different correct answers.

[cr4f7yDz]

Chinese is actually very flexible in word order. You could learn the chinese equivalents of english words and use those chinese words in thee exact same order as their engkish equivalence, and you will be understood. However, chinese people find Subject, Verb, Object (common english word order) to be very robotic and boring and repatative. So it's common for Chinese sentences to be formed in a Verb, Object, Subject pattern (Yoda speaks like this). However sometimes the context of the sentence will make one form more appealing than the other basically, chinese is very inconsistent. And when in doubt, speak like chinese yoda... Thats usually the best form.

[wbeeman]

昨天我很晚回家 was marked wrong. This is driving me crazy. One sentence has the subject first, and in the very next example, the time adverb is the first element. These are grammatically interchangeable. Please fix this. Duolingo is not doing us a favor by creating mistakes where they don't exist.

[Janun]

I thought the time indicator could also go before the subject?

[cr4f7yDz]

Absolutely correct, I've lived in China for 4.5 years and time always goes before subject

[Eresniale]

Is 很 mandatory here?

[JOrlando3]

Yes. It doesn't mean "very" in this context. It's a particle that precedes the adjective.

[roman2095]

It is accepted without the 很 for some reason

[Ekrem_G]

Should this be accepable ...
我昨天回家很晚了

[JOrlando3]

I believe so, but I wrote that on September 6, 2018, and it was still marked wrong.

[SantaRPG]

This is super annoying. I hate getting questions wrong because duolingo cant be consistent on how it wants to see word order

[Gary329920]

Duolingo should accept both Time + Subject +Object and Subject + Time + Object word order. Both are correct.

[Jiu93]

我昨天回家很晚 should be accepted right?
I thought that both are ok

[laurawhnijssen]

You don't need 了 in this case? Why not? Is it particular to 回家?

[JOrlando3]

It's because you used 昨天. If you say "yesterday," it is understood that you are talking about the past.

[blasiandude]

為什麼不可以用「了」？
太口語嗎？

[AndrewInDC]

Also marked correct; 昨天我回家很晚

[alex.maslov]

I think, my answer 昨天我很晚回家 should be accepted. Now it is not.

[Peter519121]

Can a subtle change to the wording be the difference between saying late in the day vs. later than normal? I feel like this one means late in the day (or maybe ambigous?)

[mgwuh]

我昨天家回去得很晚了。 I feel like this is wrong but idk why. (Duo didn't like it, that teaches me little here)

[mgwuh]

我昨天回晚了家。
我昨天回去晚了家。
我昨天回家回得很晚了。
I'd appreciate feedback on these as well - I just don't trust duo Chinese, you know?

[HelenWalte14]

Looks like I had the same problem as Jonny, below. I think we're right.

[CalystaRose]

5-15-21 it let me say: 昨天我回家很晚

[LearnHowToHack]

昨天我晚去家 can someone explain why this is wrong?

[HelenWalte14]

With "wan qu", you're going to be late.... not you were late. That's my take on it.

[xCA712]

I believe it kind of translates to "Yesterday I went late to (my) house." in the sense that you entered your home later than the time you wanted to arrive at rather than the fact that you went back home very late.