"他的生日是什么时候？"
Translation:When is his birthday?
19 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Why would you use 时候？日期 makes more sense. 时候 is like time. Birthdays all start at the same time: midnight, so what's important is the date. Now if the sentence was about a party, it would seem normal but this just sounds weird to me.
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The question was, "when is his birthday?" The question did not use 几点 to ask for what time or hour. It asked 什么时候 or "when", right?
In English, "when" can mean any frame of time; such as next week, tomorrow, in October, this summer, or even a specific date. Does 什么时候 work the same way as in English?
According to the link below, 什么时候 can be used to ask for a date:
Wáng Lì: Nǐ shénme shíhou jiéhūn?
王 丽：你 什么 时候 结婚？
Wang Li: When will you get married?Zhāng Wěi: Bāyuè shíjiǔ hào.
张 伟：八月 十九 号。
Zhang Wei: August 19th.
Yes, 什么时候 in English is when. I am a Chinese and I speak it fluently as well as English. But usually I use 什么时候 at the beginning of a sentence. For example, 你什么时候回来? Or I would say 你及时来我家? So we acrually use 什么时候 and 及时 intervently.
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I have seen comments from other native speakers saying 什么时候 is often used at the beginning of the sentence. If it's wrong to use it at the end, DuoLingo should update the Chinese phrase.
My reply @grippygecko was because they believe 什么时候 is used to ask a question only about time and not about dates.
Why is “她” rejected? Isn't it equally valid in the absence of some other indicator?
Whenever you think your answer should be accepted, you need to click on the REPORT button, and select the option: My answer should be accepted. --- The volunteers respond to Reports more often than just mentioned in the Discussions, which they may never see. The volunteers don't always add every single correct answer for every Translate, we need to help them by reporting answers we think should be included.
Absence of some other indicator ? "HIS birthday". Now if you were only given the audio I could understand your question but I never came across an exercise on this course where you get an audio sentence and have to write it in Chinese .
I had it for the audio only and it marked it wrong when I said 她，too. It should be accepted during the audio because there is no difference in tone between 她 and 他.
If it is only the audio, use 他, as it is common practice in China when you only have audio, like grippygecko said. But, still report it using the Report button.
I agree with CinnamonTe1 For "他的生日是什么时候？" According to Google Translate: 什么 (Shénme) by itself means WHAT - but, when you use the phrase: 什么时候 (Shénme shíhòu) - which we have here, it means WHEN (literally: what time). So: "When is his birthday?" - was accepted by Duolingo as correct: 4 Feb 2021, by the way. --- As to the debate about this phrase belonging in front of the sentence instead of at the end of a sentence. Good to know, thanks CinnamonTe1!
I just want to say that Google Translate recognizes it at the end of a sentence as well, so maybe it is not common, but, at the end of the sentence it is still recognized as correct by Google Translate. I know that might not mean a lot. LOL
