"¿Qué países conoces?"
Translation:What countries are you familiar with?
39 Comments
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What is used to ask a question when there are an unknown number or infinite possibilities for an answer. Which is used when you have a very small or limited field to choose from.
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Huh. I've never thought about it that way, but that seems to be pretty true. "Which" is like "select" and "what" is like "supply". I'll have to steal that from you. Thanks!
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Feel free. I stole it from the Ventures textbook I use to tutor ESOL. :)
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Not quite. The number can be quite large, the definition is a selection from a definite set, such as the number of countries that exist (see Oxford dictionary) so in this case the correct word is which.
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But the set of countries that exist is not a definite set.
I included a link. While the article linked argues for a particular number, it does explain why the set of countries is not a definite set.
https://www.thoughtco.com/number-of-countries-in-the-world-1433445
So we are back to "what" again.
'With what countries are you familiar?' marked wrong. This should be correct, as it is actually a better grammatical translation.
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Correct, yes. Did you report it? That's how they change things.
Better, no. If it's about ending sentences with prepositions, there has never been a time in English history where grammarians agreed on that prohibition, nor has there been a time when most native speakers avoided the construction.
Generally, English speakers try to front their interrogative pronouns, so one could even argue that the translation DL uses is better.
Regardless, both are perfectly correct.
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I reported it since it's not yet accepted - I also thought to avoid the dangling despite the obvious capitalization hint
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Conocer when used in places or countries would mean that you actually been there and not just know the facts and information on that place. I think duo is telling us that if we use "know" on this context, we are actually saying the verb Saber.
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"With what countries are you familiar?" is grammatically correct. Why isn't it accepted?
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Nothing. It's the position of the preposition. Good grammatical English would phrase it as "With what countries are you familiar?" Today most people are lazy with their grammar and place the preposition at the end. The BBC newsreaders follow the autocue with such constructions. I for one try my hardest to avoid end of sentence prepositions. Don't get me on the correct use of "less" & "fewer".
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Correctness of languages is determined by its speakers, not by a set of rules. Look up the history of the preposition rule and you'll find it has never been widely followed; beyond that, it was simply made up (and when it was made up, it was as a style rule, not as grammar rule).
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Not in this case, when used as adjectives qué and cuál have exactly the same meaning, but qué sounds more natural.
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Can someone explane what is wrong with - What cities do you know?
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I'm afraid many Americans would include England, And Duolingo doesn't help..
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Why do you need the accent in países? It's the penultimate syllable in a word that ends in S, which usually means no accent. Does it have to do with discriminating between the A and the I? I don't understand.
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"¿ Qué países conoces ?" : What country do you know ?
"¿ Con qué países estás familiarizado ?" : What countries are you familar with ? "
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A preposition at the end of a sentence is not proper English. "With which countries are you familiar" is proper English.
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Correct English grammar is "with what countries are you familiar?" --"A preposition is a word that you shouldn´t end a sentence with!!!!!!