29 Comments This discussion is locked.
We forget that this not about learning English, it's about learning how the Portuguese and Brazilians do it. If you don't get that in your head then you will find it hard to take in the language. For all you folks saying "well in English"....
People aren't complaining about the Portuguese not matching the English, they're complaining because they are asked to give the English translation and the one that would naturally be used wasn't accepted.
I completely agree. We cannot technically use the article as liquids are uncountable.
How do I make a whiskey sour? is a commonly used English sentence.
Like the DL example it is a liquid, yet most US speakers would find it acceptable.
I think that we, who are trying to learn Portuguese, would like to be corrected more on the Portuguese language and less on the English sentences.
Unfortunately, each translated sentence will have a literal translation and a "prefered" usage. Think of what would happen when the above English is presented and one would have to remember to change the YOU to EU and the associated verbs.
Idealy DL would look a blind eye to minor errors to English when translating from Portuguese.,
And then somehow present the best English to translate to Portuguese but insist on the best Portuguese usage (with correct Portuguese grammar!) when translating back.
As my Galician grandfather would say GRRRRRRR!
Why is "How do you make a lemonade?" incorrect? It is the idiomatic translation to English
Actually, faço is the conjugation for "to make" for the 1st person. Maybe the person is asking for the steps on how to make lemonade. "How do you make lemonade" would be "como se faz (uma) limonada?" / "como você faz limonada?"
yes, that's the literal translation, but it's not natural in English. You would ask in English "How do you make a lemonade?" por "How do you say lemonade in Portuguese?" Instead of "How do I..."
What I've noticed in Romantic languages, is that "I" and "One" subjective nouns seem to be equivalent. In English, we tend to use "How do you..." questions when asking generically. Technically, the grammatically correct way to ask a question as such would lead with "How does one..." It seems as if it's just one of the differences of how the languages operate.
But they still prefer literal translation. I just didnt get what you meant with the second question: "how do you say..."
If you wanted to know what's the Portuguese word for lemonade, you would ask your teacher "How do you say 'lemonade' in Portuguese?" instead of "How do I say..." in Spanish you would use the third person "Cómo se dice..."
Although in English it might be more common to phrase the question as"How do you make lemonade", asking someone else "how do i make lemonade" is just as correct. There are also other contexts where asking "How do I make lemonade" is perfectly acceptable (e.g., when asking yourself a rhetorical question to jog your memory). As such, I don't see how this sentence should have "how do you make lemonade" as an acceptable translation. I don't think this is the idiomatic translation.
I feel "how do you make lemonade" should be a correct answer since "a lemonade" is not something that would be said in the English language unless you were ordering one lemonade
Can I report it without coming across the sentence in training? Or do I need to wait until it shows up again?
There's a slight possibility of finding that again, then you report. I dunno if the support button down the page may be used for that (maybe if you specify the problem....)
yeah. i was going to say that too. was confused why i was wrong when "a lemonade " does not exist in english..and i just left out "a" and was wrong..
In Portuguese, "limonada" is also a kind of lemon juice. So, I suppose in English it is perfectly reasonable to say "How do I make a lemon juice"?, so, if you substitute "lemon juice" by "lemonade", it will sound natural: "Como faço uma limonada?"
You could say "how do i make a beer shandy? " or "how do I make a rum and coke? " so technically you could ask how to make a lemonade (one drink). You're just not likely to ever ask that, since the answer would be the blindingly obvious: "Open the bottle. Pour liquid into desired glass. Serve. Must I draw a picture for you?"
Rob, I'm Brazilian and I just registered in the Portuguese course to check how it is. I would say you need the word "uma" to make it sound more natural. Grammatically, you can perfectly say "como faço limonada", but when you add the word "uma" it sounds smoother
From an English perspective, I would say: usually no, but grammatically I would say yes. Making lemonade is a much more generic representation of the sentence than Making A lemonade. I think in general we would not typically use the former (unless, for example, a bar has a drink they refer to as lemonade, or there is some specific way they make their lemonade).
Can't say I know enough about Portuguese to answer appropriately though :-)
Uma also means one. "How do I make one lemonade" A single lemonade is a bit trickier than a full pitcher of lemonade so one might need to know how to calculate that.
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if you insist on formal usage all the time, i doubt that you'd really be getting an accurate portrayal of english or any other language. also, take into account that language changes over time. that also goes for anyone who gets bothered by progressive stative verbs in english. language is cultural, and always linked to a particular time and environment, not a grammar handbook. making a note between formal and informal usage will suffice. it does language learners a great disservice to cut off informal usage because it clashes with your aesthetics.
