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- "你对英国的历史和文化有兴趣吗？"
"你对英国的历史和文化有兴趣吗？"
Translation:Are you interested in British history and culture?
22 Comments
对 can mean "toward" in this sentence, kind of. "What feelings of interest do you have TOWARD British history?"
Literally:
- 有兴趣 ——> have [an(y)] interest (in)
- 感兴趣 ——> feel [an(y)] interest (in)
Effectively:
There's no practical difference, and the two expressions are effectively interchangeable. I've confirmed this with two native Mandarin speakers (and a look around the web supports this as well).
959
I read on a website that 没有 is used as a negative for past actions and 不 is used for present and future actions.
Since 感兴趣 negates with 不, I think it is used to talk about present and future interests, while 有兴趣 is used to talk about past and ongoing interests.
Duo's Hobbies 3 tips says:
感兴趣 - to be interested in
有兴趣 - to have an interest in
In English, "to have an interest in" typically means something you already know about.
I am not sure if native Chinese use those two phrases the same as in English, but this is how I understand it from the tips and their negation structure.
In this, 没有 does not actually refer to the past. It is simply the negation of 有 ("to have.") 有 is an irregular verb in that it is always negated by 没, never 不.
- 959
Okay, but Duo's tips gives different definitions for the two phrases.
In English, "to have an interest" in something means that it started in the past (before the present moment)."
"I have an interest in geography" indicates an existing interest from the past. Whereas "I am interested in geography" speaks of the present moment.
If they both have identical meanings and uses, what would be the point of Duo giving 2 separate English definitions?
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22bu%22_and_%22mei%22
It's an interesting idea, but the Duolingo translation of "感兴趣" to which you refer isn't literal, and in this case I don't think we can take much from the chosen translation except that in English we don't typically say "feel interest in"; and as for Duo's translation of "有兴趣", the direct literal translation simply makes sense in English, but it doesn't look like it goes any deeper than that.
In those "tips" the two expressions are presented as interchangeable, which corresponds to the opinion I got from the two native Mandarin speakers I asked. I specifically put your idea of the distinction for "something you already know about" to them and neither of them supported it.
- 959
Thank you. I appreciate you sharing the perspective of Mandarin speakers. If both phrases are true synonyms, it would be helpful if Duo updated their tip section. As a second language, we are learning Chinese through our understanding of English. The tips only translated "have an interest" as 有兴趣. If both Chinese phrases are fully interchangeable, they shouldn't have made that distinction.
However, I do find it curious that even Google translates both phrases differently in the negative.
我对狗没有兴趣 = I have no interest in dogs
我对狗不感兴趣 = I am not interested in dogs
If you wrote "UK's history and culture", and not "the UK's history and culture", you made a mistake by omitting "the".
England, to be exact. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all part of the UK.
Thanks, but that wasn't the issue. I believe officially: -England is 英格兰 -Britain is 不列颠 (Great Britain 大不列颠) -United Kingdom is 联合王国
From what I understood so far, 英国 is the most common way of referring to the UK in Chinese (i.e. the whole country of UK GB & NI). What often happens in these DL exercises is that they write 英国 and expect a very specific English translation without accepting the alternatives. In this exercise they only accept British for 英国 and not UK. Any thoughts?
英国 commonly (colloquially) refers to many things, British in general, the UK, and England specifically. In light of that, both "the UK's" and, colloquially, "English" should be acceptable, if not the given, translations.
As reference, google translate puts it this way:
联合王国 - the United Kingdom
英格兰 - England
大不列颠 - Great Britain, Britain
威尔士 - Wales
苏格兰 - Scotland
北爱尔兰 - Northern Ireland
爱尔兰 - (Republic of) Ireland
英国的 - British
This is somewhat, due mainly to usage of wikipedia as the source, satisfactory if you were to take wikipedia's description of the UK: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands.
In general, Duolingo's Chinese for English speakers course is in the midst of accepting more and sometimes better translations; I see sentences being put up from 3 to 10 months ago, but the acceptance rate seems to vary from fairly quick (about 2 months) to no news since 10 months ago, so it's not that action isn't taken but in the meantime, the "debate" rages on.
non native of english. why is my sentence with a definite article 'the' in front of 'british history' wrong?
You don't use 'the' when talking about something in a general sense.
for example:
do you like the oranges - this could be a bowl of oranges on the table or a bag or oranges you just handed to them
do you like oranges - you are asking if they like oranges in general, no reference to any specific oranges
Hope that helps.
- 1171
"Are you interested in Britain's history and culture?" is marked wrong. I reported it June 23rd 2020.
