"उसके पैरों में दर्द है।"
Translation:There is pain in her legs.
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I was so enthused about the Hindi course but have been trying to get through this chapter forever. The way these body parts are introduced all at once in totally weird English sentences give me a hard time. Nobody in his right mind would say there is pain in my legs. Makes the lessons immensely frustrating to me. Am I the only one?
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Yes, that sounds awkward, but there is a reason why Duolingo insists on this translation. We have to learn when to use the gerund and when not....at least that's what I figured.
Really I think "There is pain in her legs." is too far from ordinary English idiom to qualify as a translation. 'Her legs hurt." "Her feet ache." are things English speakers really say, unless उसके पैरों में दर्द है is as peculiar and unidiomatic in Hindi as "There is pain in her legs" is in English. These Martian English sentences are confusing me. I don't know whether I am learning odd Hindi sentences constructed for teaching purposes or natural Hindi speech.
“उसके पैरों में दर्द है” is a perfectly natural Hindi sentence (albeit a bit formal imo) so there’s no need to worry about that. The English sentences are not found in normal speech because they are quite literally translated... although I would argue this is more helpful to understanding how the sentence works in Hindi rather than a more colloquial English translation.
I can imagine, as you do, some context in which "There is pain in my legs." might be uttered by somebody. But as a learner of Hindi I need to know whether I am learning the Hindi equivalent of an ordinary, idiomatic phrase like, "My feet hurt." or something unusual like, "There is pain in my legs." I really think that Duolingo should have some way of indicating that a literal translation of a Hindi sentence is being provided, so as to make the structure clear. Maybe something simple like and asterisk. I need to know the ordinary, unmarked way of saying things in Hindi and to know what ordinary, unmarked English it corresponds to. I don't want to have to learn a special Duolingo interlanguage to do these lessons. Maybe both a literal translation and an idiomatic equivalent could be given the first time a structure of idiom is presented. I am not nit picking. I see from the comments that I am not the only one who is flummoxed by some of the English.
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I share your frustration. The lessons generally (in all languages) are trying to simulate "immersion" which is how children learn language: by repetition and rejection/correction without explaining any grammar. If that is always the best way for adults to learn a second language is up to debate, but there likely will not be any shift in approach. It seems to be the philosophy of the entire program. That being said. THIS forum is a good place for those explanations, not so much for defending the teaching method at the expense of doing so. When even a small child articulates a language question ("Why is it 'children' and not 'childs'?) they deserve an articulate, language-based answer, not a dogmatic-- that's not how we teach it here-- dismissal.
i understand the sentiment. but marking every sentence would be too much. also, it's not always b&w, there's gradations of how literal or idiomatic a phrase is. best way is just to learn phrases in large numbers, preferably in context, and preferably in audio (film with subs is great), so that you can hear intonations, from which (with context) you may be able to deduce the pragmatics of the phrase. can't rely solely on one source, be it duo or otherwise. gotta train the brain with many examples from many sources, like training a neural net.
no, उसके means his or her, not mine. I think that there is a slight difference between how you would say that there is pain in someone's legs and that their legs hurt. But according to me "her legs hurt" should be an acceptable answer, though i am not sure wether that is only my opinion or generally true...