43 Comments
I thought "com licenca" was more like "excuse me" or "pardon me." (Not, "sorry.")
In this case, the "sorry" is not really said in a "I'm sorry I did something really bad" kind of way. Its said in a way to politely ask for the person's attention. That's why it's "Com licença". Some people say "Sorry" followed by a question too, in english for that reason as well. If you put "excuse me" or "pardon me" for your answer and it was wrong, then you should probably hit the report button :)
Sorry is generally used more often in Britain than the US. I believe that excuse me is the preferred option in the US.
I took it as "With your leave,". Which is incredibly formal but seemed like it made sense.
I don't know if you are a native English speaker or not, but I use the three interchangably... maybe it's a southern thing haha
US: Bathroom
UK: Toilet
duolingo doesn't support UK English on this. A bathroom in the UK is a room that has a bath in it. I've also seen 'toilet' in Texas (Dallas Fort Worth), so it's not even exclusive to the UK.
Right, but as a language teacher I understand their choice because they had to choose the alternative that's least linguistically confusing. If I tell you a word is XZXZ and that the meaning is toilet, you're not sure if it's the object or the room. Wheras if I tell you the meaning is bathroom, you'll understand that it's a room at least, you might just need to look up whether or not Portuguese speakers differentiate between the two rooms the way English people do. It makes sense from a teaching perspective, but I would probably be annoyed too if words like lorry or anorak started popping up under definitions 0:)
We usually say banheiro for bathrooms or restrooms. But you also find sanitários (usually in signs) or even toilets too. We can also say banheiro público (public toilet)
In most other cases (colour/color, trousers/pants, etc.) duolingo supports the UK version, so much so that cases like this look like they missed one rather than a deliberate decision.
On lorry or anorak, I call it a coat or a jacket anyway, the word anorak is mostly obsolete, and both truck and lorry are correct in UK English. I can't imagine it would cause you a problem if duolingo accepted the word 'anorak', only if it asked you to translate it to Portuguese.
Linguistics never causes me problems I just meant everyone likes their own dialect :)
It means "excuse me": when you enter a place, when you need to walk among some people, pass by someone, when you need to stop talking to someone to do another thing...
Com licenca is not "If you please" ( i thought it was a good guess though) did anyone put with license?
Most people I hear seem to abbreviate to "cença", but I've never heard a single brasileiro say "Com licença"
I, personally, say "com licença" or just "licença", but never just "cença"
I have never heard "licença" or "cença", only "com licença", but then again I live in a state where people try to speak quite formal :) So I guess it depends on where you go
I was told once that this means, with permission, as when you want to excuse yourself.
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Is there any difference between "onde é o banheiro" and "onde está o banheiro"?
Since banheiro can never change places, it's not a good thing to use "estar" (current/transitory meaning).
"Ser (é)" and "ficar (fica)" are the best options.
Use estar for things that change place:
- Onde está o carro?
- Onde está teu pai?
For the places themselves, which do not move, we don't use it.
Except for cases where "the bathroom is gone, where is it"? Or when locating places on a map or a plan.
It's common to use "estar", however, in the expression: "está localizado(a) em" (is located in/at).
Instead of "com licença" is it acceptable to use "por favor" to politely ask for someone's attention?
I think that "washroom" is often used in Canada. It would be quite unusual in the US where "restroom" is used to refer to "facilities" in public places.
