"أَفْتَح اَلْحَنَفِيّة."
Translation:I open the faucet.
26 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I think its important that you learn that in arabic the verb to open is used in cases like this. I visit family in the middle east and in pakistan and when they speak english they say "close/open the light/faucet" not turn on. Because in their language thats the literal translation.
While I think it's important to understand the literal translation, I think there is value in accepting "I turn on the faucet" with text either way describing the colloquial/literal translation. I seem to remember seeing this feature in my Spanish lessons and gaining a better understanding because of it. From the perspective of using the reverse course (English from Arabic) it might be more helpful as well.
Language should be translated for meaning, not verbatim. Thats the first thing I learned in the my MA-level translation classes.
1228
I agree with the learners who are asking you to accept "I turn on the faucet/tap" or "I turn the faucet/tap on" as acceptable English translations. Even though we are here to learn Arabic it's not a great use of time to have to remember a literal, incorrect translation in English to progress. Thank you for considering our request.
من يحتاج تعلم اللغة العربية بالمحادثة انا مصري ويمكننى ان اعلمك العربية بدون مقابل فقط لنتدارس اللغتين معا راسلني على الايميل التالي على فيسبوك https://www.facebook.com/mohamedelgammal47
Do you have Instagram Snapchat Whatsapp or Viber because I do not have facebook ?
- 61
We, Russians, also open a tap :))) but.. we turn on the water !!! (otkroy kran, vkluchi vodu)..crazy)) as for me, special features like these make any language even more attractive for learning.
- 1815
In Spanish, also, it is open and close the faucet, but the word for faucet is "llave" (key--like a key for the car or the front door) abrir la llave, cerrar la llave.
- 1653
Like in English with faucet and tap, in Spain we use the word grifo; llave sounds more technical (llave de paso, meaning stopcock). Maybe, llave is an American (Latin American) word.
Native English we would say "I turn on the faucet " or "I turn on the tap"
Additionally: I turn the faucet, on. or I turn the tap on.
That's very clumsy English - how about "I turn the faucet on" (Am) or "I turn the tap on" (Gb)
Hello. The problem is that فَتَحَ/يَفْتَحُ does not mean to "turn sth. on". It means "to open sth." (anything, like a door, a box, a book, the faucet). But you can't use فَتَحَ/يَفْتَحُ to say e.g. "I turn on the radio." ("to turn on" is a completely different verb). So as this course is about learning Arabic and not about learning English it makes more sense to teach the correct meaning of the Arabic word, even if often it does sound a bit weird to a native :-)
- 1050
Hebrew is my native language and both Hebrew and Arabic belong to the same language family so therefore I can tell you that for Hebrew or Arabic speakers it is very common to say "I open the furcet" instead of saying "I turn on the facuet". it will appear in Hebrew this way "אני פותח את הברז" and that because we do not refer to the facuet as an electronic device which should be turned on "להדליק, להפעיל".
Sometimes the lessons prefer common English usage, such as "on the street" rather than "in the street", which would be the literal translation from Arabic.
As a native GB English speaker, I would never say 'Open the faucet', I'd say 'Turn on the tap'. It irritates me that faucet is used here, ie, that US English dominates, but I understand. I also understand why Duo uses the literal translation, 'to open'. It shows me that the verb 'to open' is used in the context of turning on a tap. If I were learning Arabic in a classroom, I would expect the teacher to explain this to me, but to use 'to turn on a tap' as the correct translation. Also, as an English teacher and speaker, I'm very used to hearing foreign language speakers incorrectly saying 'open/close the tap' when speaking English. It's a common mistake due to the influence of their own language. It's unfortunate that Duolingo perpetuates this mistake, but, in the absence of a real-life teacher, I can see it makes sense.
- 1815
The first letter of aftahu, the alif is the I. To say 'you open".. then you take off the alif and put the letter ta, so it will say taftahu. If you want to say "he opens' then the first letter will be ya, yaftahu.
