"Are you a teacher?"
Translation:你是一个老师吗？
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1529
In Chinese definite/indefinite articles don't exist, however, as for a - an, it can be replaced with:
一 yī (number one, but also considered as the article a - an) + a classifier
note: all the chinese classifiers (they are around 150) serve every time you have to quantify things, in particular this 个 (gè) is used for people or abstract and general things, but also when it's not clear what is the correct classifier. I give you an example on how to use it:
八个人 - bā gè rén (eight people)
一个问题 - yi gè wèntí (a/one question).
in these cases you don't have to translate 个 (gè), just like in DL sentence, but remember that classifiers are mandatory in Chinese speaking of quantity.
note2: really, speaking about only people, when you have to espress politeness, the right classifier is 位 (wèi), so we could also say:
一位老师 - yī wèi lǎoshī (a teacher)
but be careful, it's not possible use it with 人 - rén (person).
Bye
I never understood the point of classifiers. They exist in Japanese too. How inefficient can it be to say Ten X with 150 different words between ten and X depending on X, when it doesn't even appear to affect meaning?
... I hate it, “一个” mean a/an but it have no need to be add to sentence to make it “你是一个老师吗？”, “你是老师吗？” also correct.
Technically the sentance is correct, but it would be more rude and sound like "Are you or are you not a teacher?"
- 690
Is it rude? I thought the 'are you, are you not' form was just more informal, like 'you want, don't want'.
I wrote "你是老师吗" and it was marked as wrong. So far it was correct though. People say you have to use 一个. I didn't learn that one yet though. How does this work?
I was so confused lol because when my tutor used to teach traditional Chinese to me and I used the old 'ma' form.
I simply combo duolingo & hellochinese app to have a complete understanding
