"我们只要半只北京烤鸭。"

Translation: We only want half of a Peking duck.

[billjross]

"We want only half of a Peking duck" why is that wrong?

[demitau]

Why 只 is used twice instead of once (eg before 要)

[Gabrielle145359]

They are two differemt words (with two different tones), although the simplified characters are the same.

The 只 before 要 is zhǐ, and means "only."
The 只 after 半 is zhī, and a measure word for some kinds of animals.

[wordgeek416]

I see only one instance of 半, but in case you are wondering why 只 appears twice, it's because the second 只 is the simplified form of 隻 and is used as a classifier for 鸭

[demitau]

I always thought that 只 is a classifier for alive animals only.

[z4096]

Nope, raw and cooked too

[domsalazar0]

I thought that too, you learn something new every day!

[z4096]

只要 means 'only'. 一只 is one followed by the measure word for duck

[Jonshock]

Until now 要 has always meant to need (although I have always used it as want). Whenever there has been want in previous exercises it has been 想.

[KX3.]

要 can actually mean both.

[MicahLiuba1]

If you ask for half a Peking duck, is the other half released back onto the pond?

[Alfie348421]

"We just want half a pekin duck" (although this my take place in a restaurant, there is no trace of the word "order" in the chinese sentence, hence I think the translation given by duo is incorrect. )

[RhysLudlow]

After two year 要 and 想 still confuse me.

[YvesPeraire]

The duolongo program gives the erroneous translation
We only want a half order of Peking duck.

[PengXu14]

I wrote "We want only half of a Peking duck.", but Duolingo denied it

[Jonshock]

"half of a" in this context doesn't sound quite right in English. Just "half a Peking duck".

[RemieSmith]

"We want only half" WRONG

Come on Duo... I reported this months ago

[ChipsLay]

'We want only half of the Peking duck' is not accepted, can someone explain why?

[deactivated user]

That seems to refer to a specific Peking duck, whereas the sentence refers to an order in a restaurant, where you usually do not have any specific Peking duck in mind, so just "half a Peking duck."

[theLordSatan]

As a vegetarian, this sentence sounds so weird. Could you imagine if someone said, "Our group would like to order one human leg for dinner, and half a body to go, please"?

[KevinAbel13]

This would have been a good time for Duo to let us know that the cow sound means roasted.

[Elijah.Fung]

学习了，原来半只是，half an order of

[Calle300259]

The Duolingo translation is wrong. There is no mention of any "order". You should correct it.

[MayleneNguyen]

We only need half of a peking duck is rejected why?

[RobertSchlatter]

I put in
We only need half a Peking duck
and it was marked wrong. In English this is okay without the of

[Jaz_Peter]

要 can be translated to either "want" or "need". How do we know which one to use? In this particular sentence "need" is not the correct translation.

[VictoriaTh357947]

we only want half a piece of peking duck
also correct

[clintack]

"We only need half a Peking duck."?

[wbeeman]

"We only want a half Peiking duck" is correct, but not accepted. Please fix.

[Jacques439990]

Beijing duck is accepted then why gong bao chicken is not????

[deactivated user]

Maybe because that is a different dish?

[StephanusG1]

Maybe because "gong bao chicken" isn't actually used by anyone. An English translation would be "kung pao chicken"; that's what it's universally known as in English. Pinyin would be "gongbaojiding".