"Although he doesn't like to talk, he likes to smile."
Translation:虽然他不喜欢说话，但是喜欢笑。
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I believe it can be left out in informal situations, but it's more proper and standard to include it.
"虽然" can be left out, though then the sentence is usually translated with "but" instead of "although".
"可是" can be used instead of "但是" (and maybe "倒是" too), but I've never heard that the second phrase can be left out, even informally, and I can't find a grammar source saying it can. Do you have one?
I don't really know but my dictionary says
笑 = laugh, smile
微笑 = smile (and translates literally to "small laugh" so that makes sense)
So I guess it would be safe to use the first one to mean "laugh" and the second one to mean "smile" but I don't know what other more subtle distinctions in meaning are possible.
Yes, I think that's the basic distinction, but that (a) there's less of a clear line between them in Chinese, and (b) there are euphony effects (and nuances, as you say) to consider that native speakers will naturally have more of a feel for.
As far as I recall, a user called Mr.rM and I had a substantial discussion on this page, but all of his posts seem to have been deleted from Duolingo, and unfortunately that means several useful discussions we had in the Chinese forums are gone as well.
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Apparently Duo thinks so because I got marked wrong for using it there. IRL there's not a thing wrong with it and in fact it makes the sentence less ambiguous.
So far in this particular lesson I have gotten six different questions wrong that Duo should have accepted. So glad I'm not paying money for this course.
Because you put a space after the comma, no doubt.
Proper Chinese typing doesn't use space characters, and Duolingo doesn't seem to allow them. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate choice on Duolingo's part, but it's helpful to know. Chinese punctuation has the correct spacing already built in.
On the other hand, Duolingo seems to ignore punctuation in Chinese as it does in other languages, so you can get away with leaving punctuation out, as long as you still don't use any spaces.
It might not be that. Sometimes in the last few months Duolingo has just rejected any typed answer with Chinese punctuation in it, with or without spaces.
Two points: 1) For all you teaching English to Chinese - they will often use "Although....but.... because in Chinese you do! (虽然......但是.......). We see it as a redundancy, they see it as a necessary part of the structure. 2) As a foreigner, I would say "微笑 because 'Xiao', if mispronounced, can mean other things.
either 虽然 or 但是 can be left out and the meaning is the same. in fact it's more literal of a translation if you leave out the 但是 but it's not accepted here.
Can you find a reliable grammar resource saying "但是" can be left out? I've never come across one saying it's possible, except if "但是" is replaced with another word with the same function.
"虽然" can be left out, but then the sentence is typically translated with "but" instead of "although".
