51 Comments This discussion is locked.
I hope "we lost the lunch" doesn't work as a translation. Too close to an American idiom for "barf".
"We lost the lunch"... "It's fell down of the plate" :P ... In portuguese, it's the same word to "miss" and to "lost"... depends of the context... In this case is "miss".
1275
It ("we lost the lunch") was accepted as a translation, and my first thought was "Does this mean we threw up in Portuguese?"
(1) Unless it is a specific lunch, no need for the article "the" in the English translation.
(2) The Portuguese sentence is grammatically correct. Since the simple present in Portuguese can be translated as both simple present and present continuous, the English translation should reflect what would be most natural for English speakers: the present continuous. We are missing lunch.
We generally do not use the definite article with meals unless we are talking about one specific one. For example, we missed the lunch held in our honour.
Actually, that wasn't clear to me either the way you expressed it. .. sorry :)
The - the definite article - is used for unique or specific nouns, that is one noun. Lunch happens every day so is therefore not unique or specific. It would be used, for example, if you are referring to a particular lunch, such as the Christmas lunch as it refers to a unique, specific lunch.
No, it sounds like J when you have "di" or "de" at the end of a word.
Also if it's stressed, right? At least there are times when I've seen de or di pronounced as j. Oh, such as "dia". Hmm, maybe it's not stress, but there is some reason behind it, yes?
No, here "de" is stressed. Still, it has a D sound, not J, because it is in the middle of the word.
Hmm, is dia an exception? I thought there were a few words that had the j sound not at the end. Granted, not because of stress.
Ah, according to http://www.omniglot.com/writing/portuguese.htm it's due to it having an 'i', while "de" is pronounced "d" unless it's at the end. Depending on region (as there are apparently some who don't do this).
That is what I said at first =) every DI you pronounce like /gee/ and when you have DE at the end it sounds like /gee/ too =)
"Perdemos" work for both present and past tenses. Both options should be accepted. And in Portuguese it'll always be "... o almoço".
Duolingo doesn't like: "We are missing the lunch" (maybe because we are late)... as a translation.
To say "We are missing lunch" makes sense to me in English, & I think it should be reported.
The whole section on present verbs seems to take no account of it's English equivalent and only the present simple response seems to be accepted, however, present simple in English is used for scheduled or timetabled events, things that are always true and stative verbs using can, such as I can smell smoke. We usually use present continuous to describe things happening in the present.
^ True, that does seem to be the case in the lessons so far. I said it makes sense to me (in English) to continuously miss lunch in the present, because a person could be preoccupied with doing something else.
For example, if I were stuck in detention during lunch I would say at present "I'm missing lunch" instead of the simple present "I miss lunch". Therefore, that's what has me baffled about the Portuguese to English translation not accepting "missing" as well.
I simply want to know how to say "We're missing lunch" if it isn't "Nós perdemos o almoço". Otherwise, I wish it was accepted. :/
You could say "Nós estamos perdendo o almoço", I would think, but I'm not 100% certain the continuous..would be used in this context. It seems to me it would normally be used for activities.
You use the present continuous if the action is happening at that moment. The simple present in Portuguese also functions like the present continuous in English: "Nós perdemos o almoço." We are missing...."
What does miss actually mean in this context? Does it mean: - walk past and not see (e.g. "I didn't see you at the clinic this morning." "We must have just missed each other!") - notice the loss or absence of (e.g. "I miss you, John.") - something else?
Early exercises necessarily leave out context. Consider these contexts:
-
We get caught up reading these comments and suddenly we become aware: We are missing lunch.
-
For weeks we have eaten meals only before sunrise or after sundown. We miss lunch.
-
We are stuck in traffic on the way to a convention. We miss the lunch. (Or... We are missing the lunch.)
-
Every year we used to have a series of meals celebrating the New Year. We miss the lunch.
I think all of these be translated by "Nós perdemos o almoço." Am I wrong?
I didn't have a problem so much with the progressive -- we are missing lunch.
Actually, my problem was more with "We miss lunch" and "We miss THE lunch."
<h1>1 is okay for me as it is progressive and doesn't have the determiner the.</h1>I accept #2 in your context, but only because "miss" seems to have a different meaning for me than I think is intended by the Portuguese. The meaning of "miss" is different in "I missed my dog" and "I missed my train." In the first case I was sorry not to be with my dog, while in the second sentence I didn't catch the train. In #2 above I would take it as I feel bad that I am sorry not able to eat lunch, rather than that there was a lunch that I was not able to make. I don't think that meaning of "miss" translates to "perder," although I could be wrong.
<h1>3 I can't imagine "We miss the lunch" being used in normal conversational speech -- okay for literary use when you are using the dramatic present tense to convey something in the past.</h1> <h1>4. Mmm. I would have a problem with the "the" in that context, unless you said something like, "We always miss the lunch," where always specifies this as a habitual occurrence.</h1>But that's just true for my dialect. Doesn't make me the last word in universal English usage. Thanks for bringing up these points! A lingot from me for caring enough to do so!
I wrote "We missed the lunch" and it was accepted, but it got me thinking... since I am working on verbs in the present tense, shouldn't it be incorrect because my answer was past tense?
In Portuguese, can 'miss' also mean to long for, or to wish you had, the way it does in English? (like I might say, "I miss chocolate" if I were to go on a strict diet, or "I miss home" when I'm homesick)?
Works the same in Spanish. Like for a TV show, they say "¡No se lo pierden!" = "Don't miss it!"
this does not make sense in English - we missed lunch or we will miss lunch is better
On my way to the restaurant, I get a flat tire. It takes an hour to fix. I miss the lunch. I feel hungry.
Present tense is used for general facts, not for a specific occasion in the present. Unless it's a special meal, we don't use articles.
Quick check: when you click on the conjugation button for 'perder' you get 'eu perco' for first person singular. Should it be eu perdo?
It's not nonsensical actually. If anything, it is just a sentence with limited usage/application. However, it would make perfect sense if someone were talking about missing a lunch special at restaurant that stopped serving lunch at a certain time. In most cases it would be past tense, but in explaining a story and using casual English, someone could definitely say, "We miss the lunch."
Even in the situation you provided, the sentence is awfully awkward. I don't think it works at all frankly. But, Duolingo is free and is only a sort of supplement so I can tolerate this kind of thing.
There are quite a few sentences that have extremely "limited usage/application" however. If anyone from Duolingo is interested in improving this system, that would easily be one area.
In your example in which the restaurant stopped serving lunch and you've missed it, it is highly unlikely that you'd use the present tense - even in casual English.
Almoço is lunch and yes, lunch is food, but food is not necessarily lunch.
.
