"El fin de semana yo trabajo poco."
Translation:On the weekend I work little.
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These "poco" exercises are making me un poco loco. The Spanish>English translations are awkward, if not downright ungrammatical. If I ruled the world, I think I would render this particular sentence as: "On the weekend I work only a little." But, sadly, I do not rule the world. Yet.
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I do little work at the weekend - marked wrong. No self-respecting English person would say 'on the weekend' or 'I work little'
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Duolingo told me my answer of "I work little on the weekend." was incorrect and that the correct answer is "I don't work a lot on the weekend.", but the words don't (no) and a lot (mucho) aren't in the sentence. ("I don't work a lot on the weekend," would be "Yo no trabajo mucho el fin de semana.") .
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It is a regional colloquialism so it is not helpful for DL to include it.
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Real people say "I work a little on the weekend." Duolingo doesn't recognize this.
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People might say that, but "a little" does not mean the same as "little". The former is positive, meaning I do work a bit, whereas the latter is negative, meaning I don't work much.
DL said wrong because I said "I work a bit on the weekend." There is no "no" in this sentence!!!!!
DL has a bit of a problem with this one I think. Once more they reward a literal translation. The English translation is not how one would actually say this although it will work. I would say "On the weekend I don't work much" which I think the above is how Spanish would express the same idea. All languages have options how to express an idea and some are more elegant than others.
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In England we never say on the weekend but at the weekend also work little in English is not correct it should be work a little. I have reported this many times but they still ignore it. Just glad I am not paying for this
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I totally agree, unfortunately DL seems to prefer American English with little room for manoeuvre
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There is nothing wrong with saying "work little". "Little" and "a little" are both good English, but have different meanings. Assuming Spanish and English are similar, then "yo trabajo poco" means I work little (not much), whereas "yo trabajo un poco" would mean I do work a bit.
Duo's English translation is correct. Your assertion is incorrect. No wonder they are ignoring it.
Take some time and learn some English. See https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/quantifiers/little-a-little-few-a-few
I will add that you have a run-on sentence. You need a period after "at the weekend".
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I am not impressed by your remark for me to learn some English I am seventy one years old and have been speaking English since I was about eighteen months old. Work little is not CORRECT English just read some of the other comments and see how many say work little is not good English
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You ascribe omniscience to yourself and Duo. Words are trickier than that. Meanings depend on the speaker, the listener (reader), the immediate circumstances, their history and many, many other things. Two different people can speak the same words and mean very different things.
This is language--not math.
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I agree. By the way, my comment above was in response to the lecture to those of us who have the audacity to disagree with Duo by EdNed2.
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What dose are you referring to? :)
It looks like you work little at the English language.
"I work little, to be sure, but at difficult things." - Edgar Degas.
"I work little while Fitzgibbon's over Lanesville." - Wheeler.
Nobody cares about your concepts of the English language. But if Duo comes across this discussion, they will know that "work little" is good English.
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I wrote "On weekends, I work little", and got marked wrong. The first time I wrote "On the weekend, I work a little" and got wrong there too. This questions needs fixed, as we say in Pittsburgh.
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The Spanish is "El fin de semana," which is singular. Therefore the English must be singular: "weekend".
Then the Spanish says, "yo trabajo poco", which is "I work little". It means I don't do much work.
"I work little" and "I work a little" are both good English but mean different things. The former is intended, not the latter.
Ergo, we come up with "On the weekend I work little". That's the correct translation. It sounds very awkward in English, though, because weekend is left undefined. We want to know if it is this weekend, last weekend, next weekend, all weekends, whatever. But adding a qualifier is not our job; it is just to translate the sentence - which for all I know is also awkward in Spanish.
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I get creeps of the use of "little". I'm a little concerned of the little minds who have created these sentences; 'poco a poco'
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I work little the weekend, sounds fine to me, is the word ''on'' really necessary? Why is it necessary?
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Duo. Look at my response. You want SIR ? You want Ma'am. Learn something, homeBiscuits.
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It's singular in the Spanish sentence. Weekend, not weekends.
The English translation sounds very awkward to me; not many people would say "On the weekend I work little". So we look for translations that sound more natural. "On weekends" sounds better. But it is not an accurate translation of the Spanish. Similar with "This weekend...".
In language courses, they are usually very fussy about singular and plural (and gender, and tenses, and so on). So one needs to get that part right even if it sounds poor.
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it didn't accept "i work a little at the weekend" which is what i would say as a native english speaker.
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It is difficult to translate from Spanish into the varieties of spoken English. In the parts of the U.S. where I have lived, I would naturally say: "On weekends, I work little," or "On weekends, I do little work." But, that could be different in other parts of the English-speaking world, even in the U.S. Reported, in hopes Duo will accept more possibilities.
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Why is 'On weekend I work little' not correct while 'On the weekend I work little.' correct???
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unfortunately, there's no rule for this that I know, but it is true that "on weekend" is not what we say in English--and, in this case it actually is a direct translation because the Spanish version includes "el" But, you are right, it is confusing, because we do say "on weekends" more often than "on the weekends" (so, if the Spanish were los fines de semana,,,,,)
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Agreed. The 'correct' English translation is NOT what an English person would say.