108 Comments
why does this one accept 'soccer player' and 'football player' but not 'footballer'. Come on USA catch up with the terminology of the game the rest of the world calls football, you know the one where the players don't wear combat armour (armor?) and crash helmets.
To accept "footballer" as a correct translation, the term in Spanish would have to be «futbolista».
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Duo is teaching U.S. English. Du0 is a U.S. company.
The U.S. has many (several million) Latin-American Spanish speakers who want to learn U.S. English.
In U.S. English, a "football player" would be translated as "un jugador de futbol americano".
A soccer player is "un jugador de fútbol."
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That is not the standard way to do dates in the US.
Duo is teaching US English.
It doesn't accept it because no one reported it yet. It's not a judgement on Duolingo's part.
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In Spanish, they have "fútbol" (soccer) and "fútbol americano" (American football).
In the U.S., we have "soccer" and "football." "Footballer" is not a U.S. term. We say "soccer player."
Are you sure that "footballer" is used by the "rest of the world"?
Based on these dictionaries, it appears that "footballer" is a United Kingdom word. http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/footballer http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=footballer
You don't use "un" or "una" with an occupation unless you further describe it.
"El niño quiere ser jugador de fútbol" - He wants to be a soccer player.
"El niño quiere ser un jugador de fútbol talentoso" - He wants to be a talented soccer player.
"El niño quiere ser un jugador de fútbol que gane todos los partidos" - He wants to be a soccer player who wins all the games.
plus ser denotes "to be" form for a single person denothing "un" = a in itself is what i think though, i'm beginner not sure
I wrote, The boy wants to be football player Was wrong since i did not say soccer. Both are acceptable i thought & used interchangeably
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I think you were marked wrong because you wrote, "The boy wants to be football player". You should have written, "The boy wants to be a football player." In many languages, the indefinite article is never used before a profession. In that sentence, the indefinite article is obligatory in English.
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DL is teaching American English. In the U.S., we say "soccer". That is why it was marked wrong.
And that's why it's the default answer, but football should be accepted too.
We can't always accommodate the differences in dialect, but this one is easy ;)
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Please explain why this is "easy", as Duo is teaching U.S. English? (Yes, I know that 'fútbol." and "football" are cognates, but that's not the point. The point is that Spanish has both "fútbol americano" and "fútbol". Those are two very different sports.)
Or is this statement by Saino no longer true?
Sainio:
Duolingo tiene un curso de inglés para hablantes de español, y un curso de español para hablantes de inglés. Ambos cursos usan las mismas oraciones. Cada oración tiene una traducción principal en español y otra en inglés, y varias traducciones alternativas en ambos idiomas que tambien se aceptan.
Ahora.... Ambos inglés y español tienen MUCHOS dialectos. Por eso, Duolingo tiene que escoger un dialecto para las traducciones principales. Ya que Dúo es una compañía estadounidense, y la mayoría de los empleados y voluntarios que hacían el curso hablan dialectos de inglés americano y español americano, las traducciones principales usan estos dialectos. Si Dúo fuera una compañía inglesa o un compañía española, imagino que las traducciones principales serían en inglés británico y en castellano. (Y en este caso, los usuarios americanos se confundirían, porque no es posible complacer a todos a la vez.)
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26777526$from_email%3Dcomment&comment_id%3D29322628
Nor should it be accepted. The term is "footballer" in the UK and "soccer player" in the US
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"Player of football" is wordy English. Better is "football player."
(Of course, "football player" is not a good translation of "jugador de fútbol."
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The career of any sportsman or woman is short. Many actors leave their profession after a few years. The career of a conductor can last for more than fifty years. It would be confusing to use "estar" for gymnasts and reality TV stars but "ser" for composers and hairdressers. Learning languages is hard enough. Please do not give the Spanish Academy ideas to make it harder.
The idea that "estar" is for temporary things and "ser"for permanent ones is very misleading. "ser" is used for anything that identifies the person. "estar" is used for how you feel and where you are and there are more differences: https://www.thoughtco.com/verbs-meaning-to-be-ser-estar-3078314
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I wonder if the word 'soccer' is even understood in any non-English-speaking countries. Rarely used in the UK these days.
Yes it is used in some non-English speaking countries. On another one of these discussion pages, someone posted a wonderful map of where these are used and I was surprised. Here it is: https://www.businessinsider.com/football-vs-soccer-map-2013-12
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Great reference. Thanks.
For those who did not look at the map, many countries other than the U.S. call "Spanish fútbol" by the name "soccer."
These include Australia and Canada (According to the map).
In English we must put the indefinite article "The boy wants to be a football player." or "a soccer player" or "a footballer".
But this is a Spanish course, not an English one. So it should be completely irrelevant which dialect of English is preferred by Duolingo.
Duolingo used to accept football player as an alternative, but now that has been replaced with “ footballer.”
I wrote this sentence before like they taught me and they said it was wrong. the second time I wrote it like the above:,and they said I should write: The boy wants to be a footballer.This is not the first time I have written the correct sentence and they said I was wrong. What's going on?
Both should be correct. If you have the multiple choice, you must choose all correct answers. If you have the listen to Spanish and write it down, you must write it down in Spanish. Otherwise report it.
In American English a football player is playing a different sport that uses a gridiron, but try reporting it if that is what you use in your area.
"The boy wants to be a football player." is accepted. Was it not for you?
It should work for you, as I tested it earlier, and it worked for me. Can you please put what you answered here? It would help me in assisting you.
That would be wrong when you have noun = noun statement in Spanish though in English “a” is required there. So this is where you cannot translate word for word. Profession directly after the verb “ser” does not use “un” or “una”.
Yes, skip the article, unless there's an adjective.
Un buen doctor.
It is only a typo if it doesn’t make another word. That is Greek for “the”, but seriously it should be spelled with Greek letters.
No, really, it is used as the object of a preposition for “you”. https://www.thoughtco.com/prepositional-object-pronouns-spanish-3079366
soccer= football soccer only the USA, football the rest of the world!!! Answer: The boy wants to be a FOOTBALL PALYER should be accepted!!!!
No not just the USA, but both should be accepted if you spell player correctly.
This course is from American English and football player would be misunderstood to mean a player of a different sport. Soccer player should be accepted as correct. I heard that footballer might be accepted though.
In England we say football not soccer. Thus football should be accepted.
It is also accepted even though this course is from American English, but what was your entire sentence?
Cannot remember exactly how I responded. Believe with hindsight that an autocorrection to Player (capitised P intended) to caused the problem.
Yes, you don’t use it after the verb “to be” to indicate the subject’s nationality, religion, profession, etc. https://www.thoughtco.com/singular-indefinite-articles-3079098
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The last time (in same lesson) DL marked me wrong for leaving out 'un', and this time marked me wrong for using it!
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In the same lesson, DL marked me wrong both for using and for not using 'un'.
Still doesn't accept football in this sentence, but I've been previously using this world
Duolingo used to accept “a football player”as well as “a soccer player”, but now someone told them that the term in the UK is “a footballer”.
Can you elaborate? Your post won't get much help if you don't tell us what you put.
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Please can we have 'football Player as an option , it is more natural English'
That fact that you prefer one word over another does not make it "more natural English". For me as an American, "soccer player" is the natural translation. That doesn't make either wrong.
I don’t suppose that you meant to capitalize player, because that would not be natural. Please give your entire sentence if it was not capitalized, because the error may have been elsewhere. I also heard that “footballer” is used in the UK.
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Please include the option of football rather than the Americanised term soccer.
It's not Americanized, it's American English. We didn't change the term, but took it from British English.
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The boys of Harrow School first used "soccer" to differentiate Association football from Rugby football, which they called "rugger".
Harrow is one of England's most prestigious and pricey schools.
My father and grandfather played rugger, which they also called "football", in the British Army. They never called "soccer" "football".
A typo that changes the conjugation of the verb or the gender or number of a noun is not accepted. A typo is also only accepted if it does not make another word.
Some lessons are valid with corrections and graciously point out typos. Want vs Wants making answer wrong is overkill and ridiculous
No, Duolingo must teach correct verb conjugation and plural versus singular is important as well. Duolingo won’t know if you meant to put the wrong conjugation or not, which would be a wrong translation. A typo is only accepted if it does not make another word.
There is no conjugated verb in your sentence. "The boy wants to be a soccer player.
Well, I hope that is a typo “football player” has been accepted as correct. Please show us the complete sentence that you gave if that was a typo. Try “footballer”.
Soccer is “Association football” in England, so they have soccer players and rugby has players called ruggers. Yet, in England, they are going back to the word “football.” Try “footballer”.
