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- "Nosotros trabajamos en una e…
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157
Me, too! I worked IN a school for thirty-five years. In and at are both acceptable without much distinction. August 3, 2018
I've answered this statement three times correctly and counted wrong each time: Nosotros trabajamos en una esquela
Yes.. What is wrong with 'we work in a school'? In English this sounds better than 'at a school'.
i also used "in" rather and "at" and reported it. It's correct and should be accepted.
- 1992
I actually do work "in" a school, the only time I would use "at" would be in a setting where someone wanted to know specifically which school; as in "I work at Tyler Elementary." We would also "in" for content area or grade. "I work in the Music Department" or I work in 4th grade,
The point is that in SPANISH you work "at a school." In English, "in a school" may be preferable, but that's not the way Spanish-speaking people phrase it.
- 1992
The point I was trying to make was that in English we do use both, and if Duo is asking us to translate from Spanish into English, then both in and at should be accepted.
I miss the old days where Duo would list the various acceptable answers, as there is often more than one way, or more than one word order that works.
- 311
the point is that we here are required to translate Spanish to English , therefor in a school must work just as well
Even if we were translating from English to Spanish, en can mean the same thing as at, in, or on depending on the context.
- 979
Yes, but translations that are literal are of very little use. They need to be both translations and transformations into the new languge
I do not think that this explanation makes sense because obviously it is the same word in Spanish either way. Spanish usage cannot possibly dictate how thew phrase is translated into English any more than English can dictate the proper Spanish translation.
I wish people wouldn't downvote you Linda, but I am a bit confused here. How should the translation be said in English, in your opinion? Of course we are here to learn Spanish, but as the majority of the course involves translation into English, it needs to make sense in this language too.
- 976
Two sentences later I had "Ellos quieren trabajar en una universidad". I translated it to "They want to work in a university" and it was marked correct. So it would seem "in a school" would be correct also.
- 1410
My Chilean friends tell me that "en" is translated more commonly as "in" in this context.
- 157
The exercise is about translating the idea in Spanish to a grammatically correct sentence in English. "In a school" and "at a school" both fit that bill.
- 71
Agreed - "in a school" is more natural in English in most cases. Perhaps "at a school" if one's job isn't normally done there. For example, if I repair computers, and today "I am working at a school" it would imply that's not where I really work, or that my job isn't tied to the school normally.
- 222
Is no one having a problem with "works" vs "is working"? I was taught in school that trabaja is "work" and esta' trabajando is "is working", but all through this course, it's been saying trabaja can be translated both ways. So finally I try "are working" for trabajamos and it's wrong! So do some verbs translate both ways or what???
"in" usually specifies a place as opposed to admin. Many teachers use IN. "at" is used, but I think the other is used more
AT is mostly used when students are talking and they drop 'a' or 'the'. We work at school today.
Are you saying that's how English-speaking people phrase it? I disagree.
You wouldn't always say that though. If you are telling someone about where you work you say "in a school". If you are talking to someone who already knows what you do, then you would say, "we are working at school tomorrow" or something similar. But you don't say "we are working in school" in English. You need the article. Yes, the latter is grammatically correct, and I haven't explained it very well, but hopefully you get what I am saying.
- 359
Does anyone else hear "en la escuela" rather than "en una escuela"? Even in the slowed version I hear "en la escuela"?
Yes I can see what you mean. It could be either. By the way, nice to have a comment on this page that isn't about the "in school" debate.
Again, duo needs to get a female speaker who doesn't slur and mispronounce words
It is correct to say we work in a school just as we work at a school. Therefore my response should not have been marked incorrect
- 341
I think in should be accepted, at the school in this instance could mean outside, which is obviously different than in- well.
More thumbs up for in a school. Sometimes DL can be childish about marking us wrong. They should know this stuff!!!
Tell me why is the correct pronunciation of "en una" not sound like this in the audio. I always get it wrong the first time. I hear and translate 'in school" and not " in a school".
It's the female voice's pronunciation. Unfortunately, you can hear it spoken like this all over the course. Just take it that she is saying "una" (because she is).
The lady does, yes. But it should be pronounced "oonah" as normal. See my comment above.
- 243
Why is 'We work at school' wrong?
Why is the 'the' required here but not in other examples?
- 111
"We work at school" would probably be a translation of "Nosotros trabajamos en la escuela", but the sentence to be translated has the word "una" rather than "la", so that difference needs to be reflected in the answer.
Duolingo's suggested answer is "We work at a school". There is no "the" in that answer, so "the" it is certainly not required.
- 111
No particular reason. Whoever spoke the words, "Nosotras trabajamos en una oficina" must have been a member of an all female group. Whoever spoke the words, "Nosotros trabajamos en una escuela" must have been part of a mixed or all male group. In either case, the word nosotros or nosotras could have been omitted entirely by the speaker without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Remember though that any Duolingo sentence can be spoken by either a male or a female voice, and that nothing should be assumed about the meaning of a sentence from the apparent gender of the speaker in the audio.
- 422
I could only hear the o in the slow version. In the fast it sounded like "nosotras" every time I made it repeat.
- 111
Two reasons:
- Any sentence in Duolingo can have either a male or female voice. Don't assume anything about the meaning of the sentence from the apparent gender of the speaker.
- Even if you take note of the speaker's gender, she is talking on behalf of a group of people of which she is only one member. There is nothing to suggest that all members of that group are female, which is the only circumstance in which nosotras would be appropriate.
I guess I have been cheating. I just do not catch on to awhole sentence at once but I thought I was doing OK.
I mixed at and a i feel it should have been marked correctly ( i am also handling a newborn i should have payed attention
"at" is correct usage - see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/at-on-and-in-place
"at'' is used for school/college/university just think of ''at university''
I work IN an office AT a school.
We say "at school" (for instance: At school we used to get a lot of homerok) or "in school" (for instance: - Where are you son? - I'm in school /meant as a building/). THE PHRASE "at A school" is incorrect
- 1410
This is an "americanism" again. "In" is the proper english. Bit like being "on" a team rather than the proper english of being "in" a team.
- 979
Oh my. " Proper English" versus "Americanism. As an American who teaches English I really cannot agree with that distinction.
