31 Comments This discussion is locked.
2245
"I have won a lot of money." should also be accepted, shouldn't it? I vaguely remember a lesson that obstinately insisted on "ganhar = to win" and even rejected "to earn".
This is in the tricky present perfect section isn't it? They probably accept win but only in a sentence like "I have been winning a lot of money".
Hey people, this section is tricky, but not THAT wrong.
Present perfect in Portuguese is not used the same way it is in english. While present perfect in english is similar to simple past, in portuguese it's similar to present perfect CONTINUOUS.
So "tenho ganhado" indeed means "have been winning" (almost the same as "venho ganhando", which is the closest comparison to present perfect continuous). It DOESN'T mean "have won".
The trickiness I was talking about is that the English present perfect is accepted for some sentences where it should not be. This gives people the false impression that their literal translations of "ter (present) + past participle" should work in all cases.
That's been my impression as well. I used tenho/tem/temos + past participle or have been + gerund for all the exercises and maybe only ran into a couple of instances where my answer wasn't accepted.
However, I think a lot of the stronger reactions to this set of lessons are from a time before much user feedback had been incorporated. It's likely the early users felt like they were navigating a minefield. Also, I think some of the feedback should not have been accepted. I noticed several instances where a present perfect form was an acceptable answer. In other cases, the given phrase was in present perfect. With this in mind, some of the agitation is understandable.
Yes, win and earn should be accepted here, although earn is more suited in common cases.
The simple present perfect can have a variety of translations in Portuguese: present, past, present/past continuous as well as "acabar de". The progressive form is limited to "pretérito perfeito composto."
Present perfect progressive describes a repetitive action that starts in the past and either (1) continues to the present or (2) has stopped recently with the signs of the activity still in evidence.
To win is ok... but...
To win is good for competition, lotery, bet etc.
To make money is better for get money from job, investment, profits etc.
Problem is: how would I say: "I have been winning a lot of money" if the above sentence only means: I have been making a lot of money?
The same.
In Portuguese, when you gamble, you "ganha dinheiro".
When you win a prize money, you "ganha dinheiro."
When you work hard ang get your salary, you "ganha/recebe dinheiro".
When you run your own business and make it profit, you "ganha/faz dinheiro".
If I have been making a lot of money, don't I risk going to jail?
- 1022
This section is getting worse - mine was marked wrong for using 'a lot of money' rather than 'lots of money' Really?
They should both be accepted. "Lots" may be considered slightly more informal than "a lot".
Even though both are correct, isn't the regular participle preferred with the auxiliary verb "ter" so that "tenho ganhado" is in some sense "better" than "tenho ganho"?
I found different opinions: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8646702 says that both are acceptable and even suggests that the more popular form is "tenho ganho" whereas http://tinyurl.com/p7bm6ux seems to agree with what I said or is even more strict.
Na língua de todos os dias, você pode. Mas não está um bom estilo. Usar o get está preguiçoso.
Geralmente diz-se: "we earn money" ou "we make money".
Google corpus of English - AmE 2009
Not strictly wrong, but very unidiomatic.
"Earn money" is a more formal use than "make money." "Earn money" is associated with "working and receiving a paycheck" while "make money" is often associated with income from investments.
Ex: Bill made a lot of money from his investments in the stock market.
