- Forum >
- Topic: Swedish >
- "Flickornas äpplen"
137 Comments
Do you know what, it's the English apostrophe use I'm consistently getting wrong over here - this is awkward!
Great! We appreciate reports. However, having said that, please don't report when plural apostrophes are marked as incorrect, because that is a bug in all of Duolingo and not something we can fix in the Swedish course. :( It's terribly annoying and we are very sorry about it, but we have literally thousands of reports for it already, and we can't do anything at all to fix it.
Äpple is a slightly irregular ett-word that gets -n in plural indefinite as opposed to the normal ett-words that don't change.
Äpple is a very regular ett-word. All ett-words which end in a vowel have -n for plural indefinite and -na for plural definite.
1494
the girl's apples would be flickans äpplen (one girl owns the apples)
the girls' apples means flickornas äpplen (the apples belong to more than one girl)
- 1494
r + n merge together to create what is called a retroflex sound. There's a good comment about those by Joel__W here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5522768$comment_id=6393661 – wikipedia also has a good article with sound clips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroflex_consonant
- 1494
It's a bug and it's been reported, but we have no idea how long it will take to get it fixed.
Well, you know how you put 's after a word to show that it owns something? For instance: "the girl's apple" means there's an apple and it belongs to the girl.
When there are more than one of something, and the word ends in an s, you move the ' to the end of the word instead, to show that there are multiple owners. So that's why you get "the girls' apple", so you know that there are more girls than just one.
Can someone please provide the different words in swedish for the girls' and the girl's?
- the girl's apple = flickans äpple
- the girls' apple = flickornas äpple
I had choice of two wrong answers. "Girls book" or "girls's book". I took one that indicates possessive.
You didn't get a third choice? That's really odd - especially since there is no book in this sentence.
- 427
Got a little confused here. I thought the translation should be "The girls' apples" as displayed here, but the words I could choose from only included "girls" (without apostrophe) and "The girls apples" was accepted, which is not correct as far as I know.
Yeah, I absolutely get your confusion. Unfortunately, Duolingo's system is pretty crap with plural apostrophes, as evidenced by the many comments on this here. :/
Why do I see no comments when the counter says there should be 43? Anyway, why no apostrophe to signify the possessive in the English answer?
There are actually loads on comments about that in this very thread. Unfortunately, the Android app often doesn't load the comments for whatever reason - but if you have email notifications on, you should be given a link to the thread so that you can read the replies. :)
There is no apostrophe in the English answer to indicate a possessive. This should be fixed.
the app showed me the real answer is 'the girls apples' without the ', isn't that wrong?
I agree. Unfortunately, there is a bug with plural apostrophes. Please see the many other comments on that issue.
I got this wrong anyhow, but the English is missing an apostrophe: it should be the girls'
"The girls apples" makes no sense. If you're trying to illustrate the possessive, it should be "The girl's apples" or "The girls' apples".
I guess it is not 'flickor' because 'flickornas' refers to a single birls possession instead of sever girls?
I think this is not correct. I don't think you can assume someone's possession in english without an apostrophe. I can be wrong though. Shouldn't it be "girls' " ?
This was misleading.
It popped, for me, as a word bank question in Swedish, requesting the English translation.
I could either input "girls" (no apostrophe) or "girls's" (apostrophe-s).
Neither answer is technically correct.
Though I do understand that the former comes closest and is accepted as correct... is there a way to fix this, so that it's possible to select " girls' "?
Afraid not - if you have a scroll through this thread and any other with plural possessives, you'll find many, many comments on the same issue. Frankly, I doubt Duolingo is ever going to fix it.
I am not reporting anything because I am not sure, but I believe that "Flickornas äpplen" is wrong. I remember that there is a rule that after a possessive the subject must be in non definitive form. Maybe I am wrong so, feel free to elight me about the subject. Thank you. :)
Both right and wrong, actually: right because possessives are inherently definite and hence do not take the definite form - but wrong because äpplen is the indefinite plural; the definite plural is äpplena. :)
Then I thank you for your help, and yes you are totally right. Today I was not in good form, and that was one of my many mistakes. :)
No:
- flickors äpplen = girls' apples
- flickornas äpplen = the girls' apples
If there is no single apostrophe available I think "the girls apple" is wrong.
There should be a "'s" added to this. Otherwise the from a learner's perspective, we are just saying "the girls apples" with no possession.
As I told you before, please refer to the many other comments on this.
Yes, that is a very annoying problem that unfortunately course contributors cannot affect.
Yes, that is a very annoying problem that unfortunately course contributors cannot affect.
OK. The Android app didn't show any comments, but now I'm on the website I can see lots of them as you say.
Yes, that is a very annoying problem with the app. Users will very frequently ask questions which have been answered several times already, but they have no idea because of the bug.
- 574
Girls was counted correct, but there wasn't an option of girls' which is correct in English.
- 574
Girls' was not a choice, only girls which is wrong. Duo counted girls right, but it seems like the correct possessive should be given as a choice since that's what this lesson is teaching.
There's no apostrophe separately in template words to choose from, only with "s" :"'s"
That is a common problem with the app, unfortunately. There are many other comments on the same issue.
Nobody realises these comments are here, most of them are supplied through fast feedback form from the mobile app. I just found out that it actually ends up in here after I supply such feedback :-/
Indeed. I used to be annoyed by the many people not bothering to read the comments, until I learned a few years ago that they literally weren't aware that there were other comments. So now I keep repeating the same answers over and over again. It's hardly ideal, but if I didn't, you'd never know. :/
Thank you very much for that, but I don't think it did anything except generated community activity. Feedback from the app is meant for developers, not fellow strugglers, it doesn't help talking about it. Our common expectation (in majority at least) was that this feedback is sent to some sort of QA service that helps mainteiners of the course improve it. Evidently not :(
Well, depending on what you enter, it may also get sent to the contributor admin section, as reports. The problem is still the same, though: course contributors are volunteers who have little contact with the developers, who are employed by Duolingo. So the feedback gets sent to people who want to help but can't.
However, for other sentences, that don't have bugs, providing feedback is great because it helps contributors make the course better! :)
In English, the answer is incorrect without an apostrophe before the s to indicate singular possession, and after the s to indicate plural possession. girls and girls' are not the same thing. They need to fix these possessive answers to reflect that because yikes. If they want to make it challenging, have girls, girl's and girls' as a possibility. Or at least two.
That is a common problem with the app, unfortunately. There are many other comments on the same issue. Duolingo's system causes these problems on its own, and contributors can do nothing about it.
Tack. I see the older comments now in the full website discussion. It's a shame it's been at least two years and devs haven't fixed this.
We're at about five years and counting... I fully agree with your sentiment.
Isn't it weird that the spelling above deviates from what you can select? I can only select the girls apples or the girls's apples.... ?
It's a known bug. Please refer to the many other comments on that issue.
I keep adding 's to "the girls" (without apostrophe) and it keeps marking me wrong :(
- 374
Same old problem: in the app impossible to give the right answer when presented only with the possibility to answer: "The girls apples"
Unfortunately, all sentences with a plural apostrophe have a bug. :(
äpplen is the plural indefinite form. The singular indefinite is äpple.
That is unfortunately a very annoying bug. Please refer to the many other comments on that issue.
äpplena is the definite form, but possessives don't trigger the definite. Compare English: you wouldn't say "the girls' the apples".
Can we please get girls accepted. No one cares for or uses s'. And it sounds and reads the same without it anyway
We need to do something about that apostrophe situation. It's barely known about let alone used. Shouldn't be marked wrong
Yes, it should. Please stop complaining about it. The apostrophe is ubiquitous in English and an integral part of the language's grammar.
I understand that it should be written as girls', but when that option isn't provided, I think girls's is closer then girls.
Unfortunately, we cannot control how the system chooses to display options. If it happens again that you don't get enough alternatives to construct the correct sentence, would you mind getting a screenshot? I'd love to have something to send to the developers.
girls' is correct here, actually. But Duolingo still tries to correct you for it.
It should not. It's girl's for one girl, girls' for more than one.
