"Il n'y a ni huile ni vinaigre dans le placard."
Translation:There isn't either oil or vinegar in the cupboard.
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1172
"There is neither oil nor vinegar in the cupboard." I wish you would have native speakers check your sentence constructions.
Concur. I also wish that DL was reading these comments and responding to them. DL should bring back the option to type a message in reporting. Too many of the English phrases are limited to only the one that the author thought was right and too many of these are clearly not native English speaking.
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The point is that "either..or" doesn't mean the same as the French, it means that one or the other is missing.
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There aren't any versions of Duolingo where you only have the word bank are there? Typing with a keyboard is an option in all of them right?
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hi Badger, you are right of course. Note that, for more than a year I had no idea there was an option to turn off the word bank at all, so it has been a habit. With many other things going on in my life the easy way out is sometimes the only way I can get anything done. But today I have enjoyed not using the word bank. Have a lingot for your good words, cheers
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I have been using the word bank for over a year now and it has been fine until just recently.. I find I just don't remember enough words on my own, to my shame....I think what I was whining about was an expression of my frustration at it not being correct.. it is just so annoying... I will just have to remember more words, I suppose... cheers
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I strongly believe that typing the whole word helps you remember the words and how to spell them. It is harder of course, but you are here to learn a language, not take the easy way out.
The word bank disappears when you get to higher levels. Duolingo will wean you off it, even if you don't turn it off. I'm doing the fifth level of the tree and no more wordbank choices for any of the answers.
I don't understand why Duolingo is tying itself up in knots to avoid using "neither".
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Completely agree. Neither ... nor ... is the most direct translation of ni ... ni ... Why make this so awkward?
Well and fine but either...or shouldn't be, it doesn't mean the same thing, and the same awkward construct runs right through this whole section.
The answer is wrong, though. If either is missing, then only one thing is missing. It's not a correct translation.
- 1966
This whole exercise uses isn't..either rather than neither..nor which is the construction I would use ( British English speaker).
This doesn't mean what Duo intends. This says one or the other is not there, not the same as "neither" which would mean both are missing. Must agree with wharrgarrrbl.
As a native English speaker, we are more likely to use the following, Reverso accepts,why not Duo? there isn't any oil or vinegar in the cupboard
That construction was accepted in another sentence so if you reported it, I'm sure it will be eventually added to the list of acceptable translations.
The main point of the lesson however is that while neither..nor isn't used that much in everyday English, ne ni...ni is in French. So if you're trying to say "There isn't any oil or vinegar in the cupboard", avoid the temptation to directly translate and say "ll n'y a pas de huile ou de vinaigre dans le placard".
"There isn't any oil or vinegar in the cupboard" marked wrong. Will someone tell Duo that this is the wrong place for "either" He really should learn a bit of English before accepting the job!
All those either or sentences Duo uses here are really neither nor.
Here again, Duo fails to use idiomatic English. Either "There is neither oil nor vinegar" or "There is no oil or vinegar" would be correct. Nobody says, "isn't either"!
Double negatives aside, this is still not accurately translated. The way this is written, the cupboard is only missing one of the two, and not both!!!
Since I don't seem to hear my error in speaking after multiple tries, perhaps you can point out the problem. I listen, I speak and it is not acceptable.
The correct translation is surely: There is neither oil nor vinegar in the cupboard.