"Saya suka kucing."

Translation: I like cats.

[morgelZorgel]

Is 'I like a cat' not correct?

[ScotiaBule]

“I like a cat” is grammatical incorrect for English, so unfortunately not.

In Indonesian the way it’s comprehended is very contextual. A noun can both be plural by using it as a singular (it can be understood by the context of the conversation), or
It
Can be used in plural form which would be “Saya suka kucing-Kucing”.

In this case they have just went for the singular phrase “kucing” and used it as “cats”

Also you have to remember in Indonesian they have shorter sentence structure and less rules in comparison to the vast complexity of English (it’s the reason why Indonesian is so easy and amazing for a English native
to learn to speak), so when directly translating into English, it sounds like it’s missing parts of sentence structure we use.

For
Example, the direct translation for “Saya suka kucing” is “I like cat”, as opposed to how it would be written grammatically in English, “I like cats”.

However when we translate other languages we try to convert it as grammatical close to how we would speak, as that’s just how translations work. It’s trying to comprehend what is said in a language and then conveying it within your own language and modifying it to fit our language and grammatical rules.

[DmitryReve]

What about "I like the cat"? It isn't accepted

[MuhammadSy149684]

And You know in Indonesia there are some animals whose names are repeated, such as dolphin is lumba-lumba or turtle is kura-kura, so if these animals are used as a plural it would be strange if they became turtles is kura-kura kura-kura? XD lol

[Sp3lly]

'I like a cat' is NOT ungrammatical in English. For example, 'a cat' can be an indefinite generic noun phrase, meaning 'I like the odd cat every now and again'. Or another example: 'I like a (good) beer (every now and then)'. The words in parenthesis add meaning, but the basic sentences are grammatical in and of themselves. For generic noun phrases in English, see http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/000001.html

[SrishtiTam1]

Thank you!

[Nessiapram]

Hello?

[allenajean23]

Saya = I
Suka = like
Kucing = cat

By the way I'm Indonesia :v

[aegsh]

Is "kucing" singular and plural (cat and cats)?

[1CN5ijzC]

Indonesian noun can be single and plural, but we can stress the plural by repeating the noun

Cat is kucing
Cats are kucing-kucing

[Julian_L.]

I think that every noun in Indonesian is singular and plural.

[Sanvi_Chowdhury]

This app is amazing it help me learn many languages, u guys can also start taking online classes

[ZHKBlueRose]

I like a cat or cats both suould be acceptable becuz we are learning

[Ignacio370432]

How to differentiate the plural or singular, .. pffff Duolingo.

[son816606]

Its simple because i form indonesian hahaha

[Cantigi12]

It doesn't mention whether singular or plural. Fix it.

[Ignacio370432]

How to differentiate the plural or singular, .. pffff Duolingo

[HunSn1]

Hello