23 Comments
Does this only mean that the man is at the computer and possibly not using it, or does this mean he is using the computer? In Dutch the literally translated phrase "the man sits behind the computer" would mean he's using it, so I translated this with "the man is always using the computer"
Technically it can mean that he's only sitting next to it not using it, but you'd need a particular context for anyone to actually interpret it as such. "Sitta vid datorn" is basically a fixed expression with the sense of "to be at the computer, to use the computer". If you wanted to be less specific you could say "han är vid datorn", which would often imply the same thing, but usually not as strongly, and would be more possible to interpret as a mere statement of his location.
hah, another Dutch person who put 'sits behind the computer' here :P Is that not a fixed expression in English, too? I'll report it as 'my answer needs to be accepted' but it may be wrong after all.
Oh, haha, I didn't use that answer, I translated this with "the man is always using the computer". I was just asking if it's similar to the Dutch expression. It's not correct in English, and I don't think it should be accepted as a correct answer. After all the man is not literally sitting behind a computer. :)
aah ok. I'd swear I hear 'sitting behind the computer' more often, but as I often talk english with Dutch people (due to there also being non-dutch people present) it might just be dunglish :P
Could you say "mannen sitter alltid på datorn," too or does that sound wrong?
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I think "the man is always sitting at the computer" should be accepted. Another way I'd probably say it in English is, "the man is always sitting in front of the computer."
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The man is always sitting at the computer is already an approved answer. Not 100% sure if we should approve in front of too. We use the exact same expression in Swedish too (with framför), so one could argue that if we meant that, we would have said so.
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I tried "The man is always on the computer" but perhaps that's too colloquial?
Very often it appears i am incorrect due to the wrong choice of English words in translation or the wrong word order. I am not the native but still happy that i got the right meaning as i am learning properly. But 'at the computer' would be the last thing to come on my mind as the possible idiom
We do accept "by", "on", and "next to" as well here. But I have to say you really seem to have the right mindset!
It's accepted, actually, but I think I'll remove it. It's not very idiomatic English.
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But is that the point though? I have to learn via the english version of Duolingo because there are no swedish courses in my mother tongue. So in order to learn, I have to translate everything in English and I don't always know the idiomatic way of saying it in English, which does not mean that I did not understand the Swedish sentence. Thus, I think Duolingo should always accept many possible translations in English even though they are not 100% idiomatic.
Others feel differently, though. Many of our users take the course to learn Swedish while also improving their English. There's always a line to be drawn between teaching them bad English and accepting as much as possible.
It's not the most natural word order. Please use the standard "the man is always" instead - it makes things much easier to keep somewhat uniform across the course. :)
