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Why is "Doctors are specialists" wrong? Wouldn't the sentence "Doctors are specialists" be translated as "Los doctores son especialistas"? Can someone explain?
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Specific doctors are being refered to. The doctors. Not doctors in general. Which ones being discused would have already been stated snd understood in the conversation.
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Meant to add, because it is specific doctors that are being talked about, the article "The" is required.
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No, but we've seen before how the article "the" can be used to refer to a general group of things, as well as it's an establish grammatical point.
Most Spanish people I know would say "Me gustan los perros", not "perros" alone.
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Can a native speaker chime in on this? I didn't get it wrong, but my rudimentary understanding of Spanish grammar says "Doctors are specialists" and "The doctors are specialists" should translate the same, contrary to the many other responses. Something like "Doctors are important" translates to "Los doctores son importantes".
And preemptively: "Doctors are specialists" is a perfectly reasonable statement. Doctors don't casually drift between specialities the way, say, engineers do.
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Sirnuke, ¡Gracias! In Esperanto, "la" (which is the only definite article in the language) can be used in a generalizing sense---"La doktoroj estas fakuloj. , as used as in this lesson, would translate: Doctors are specialists.
Doctors are specialists is wrong because los means the so the sentence would be the doctors are specialists
Please translate "Doctors are specialists" to Spanish for me and tell me how that is different from the translation of "The doctors are specialists". It is impossible to tell the difference without context.
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RamakrishnanRS, I think "Los" is telling us that (these) specific doctors (happen to be = are) specialists. ... Because (all) doctors [generally] are not specialists, how can we say (all) doctors (in general) are specialists? :)
Duolingo focuses on grammar, not reason. "All doctors are specialists" is a valid logical assertion (albeit probably not entirely realistic). Similarly, "Doctors are specialists" is a grammatically correct valid assertion that can be true under multiple contexts. Without more information on the current context, both translations will need to hold up.
Either way, my point is that Christine's statement on "X is wrong because" is incorrect because neither translation is wrong.
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RamakrishnanRS, I think I understand your view. I can merely say that I have been treated by General Practitioners (now called Family Physicians), who, in turn, may refer you to a doctor with a specific specialty.... May I add that Duolingo uses "ordinary" [colloquial] "American" usage ..."I had to go to a specialist." ... "What kind?" ... "an orthopedist." :)
yes it is "the doctors are specialists" because the el in the beginning has a accent not just "el"
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If a specialist is a female, is she referred to as la especialista or el especialista?
I think it wanted you to answer with the because of los. In this case it's specifying these doctors instead of all doctors are specialists.
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I struggle with when to keep the article (la, el, las, los) in front of the subject when translating to English. It seems random to me. I also thought "Doctors are specialists" was correct. How is one supposed to know whether something is specific or general?
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Because it says la or el in front. Duo usually wants you to be super specific.
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Siegkinne, I think this is a case where you have to think about the meaning of the sentence. Since some doctors are not specialists, this sentence makes more sense if it is referring to a specific group of doctors.
So if especialidad is specialty and especialistas are specialists, does this mean that you can turn words into an occupation with -stas and a noun with -idad?
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I agree with siegkinne!!! why does it not let you do doctors are specialists
also not all doctors are specialists so the sentence is talking about a specific group of doctors so that's why there is los in front of the sentence
What if the person you are referring to is a female doctor? I am a female doctor - do I introduce myself as el doctor? or la doctora?
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Dr. Tiff, I think you would like this freely downloadable dictionary: just 'google' ---spandict dictionary---. I just checked it---¡la doctora! ---Keneĉjo Ricardo
I literally typed the right answer with correct spelling and it told me i was wrong.
I certainly hope they are. If they were self taught, we would have a problem
