Spanish - 'words' may need some improvement
During practicing I just looked up some words which brought some confusion.
For example 'soldado'. It didn't say soldado can be either masculine or feminine. Also: 'el soldado' or 'la soldado' are both correct. Translation: 'soldered'. SOLDERED??? Section: Occupations Example: El soldado no tiene familia. The soldier does not have a family.
2nd example: gafas. Translation: '(you) jinx', in the clothing section. JINX??? Example: Sus gafas Her glasses
Apparently the examples and the translation not always synchronize, and I would prefer to see the gender of the word.
Thanks!
10 Comments
Same thing happens in the french flash cards. The card and meaning are often not even close.
Well, it's not easy to build a consistent course.
I am grateful to all those volunteers who make DL to what it is.
So .. no complaints from me.
Just adding some thoughts. :)
as far as I can tell Su shouldn't be 'your' in Spanish
also I've had it tell me I'm wrong for shortening name + is to name's. Jonathon's a man. Laura's a woman. problemo?
"Su" can mean "his", "her", "your" or "their". When used as "your" it's more formal than "tu". (Like "usted" vs "tú")
you're right. 'Su' does not mean 'your' in Spanish, but 'his' or 'her'..
As I learn from DL, so please correct me if I'm wrong. LOL
This is what I understand from DL:
my cat - mi gato
your cat - tu gato
his/her cat - su gato
mi cats - mis gatos
your cats - tus gatos
his/ her cats - sus gatos
my apple - mi manzana
your apple - tu manzana
his/her apple - su manzana
my apples - mis manzanas
your apples - tus manzanas
his/ her apples - sus manzanas
I am sorry not to understand the second paragraph in your writing. Could you please give some examples please?
You are correct with the above summary, but this is not how DuoLingo is teaching it. Frequently DL is suggesting that Su = your.
As to the problem with " 's ";
John's a farmer = John is a farmer.
DuoLingo seems to prefer the 's shorthand as 'has', and has told me I'm wrong when I've translated John es un gato to John's a cat. To the best of my knowledge, 's as 'has' is incredibly uncommon. I'm not saying to remove it as it's technically correct, just that DL is altered so that on any 'John es un' translations of 'John's a' are allowed.
TL:DR 'John es un' = 'John's a'. I've put this shorthand in answers and been told I'm wrong.
's is use as a contraction meaning "is" example
it's = it is John's a cat = John is a cat
's is also used to form the possessive for nouns
John's cat = the cat belonging to John ( if you omit the indefinite article "a" changes the meaning completely )
boys' = the cat belonging the boys (words ending on s omit the s after the ' generally plural nouns )
its is a special exception the possessive rule where the ' isn't (is not) used.
's is also use to form plurals of single letters (this is often misused though) A's = many of letter "A" ( his grades are 5 A's and a B )
Yes.
The problem I was identifying was that DuoLingo is associating 's with "has" rather than "is". Incorrectly saying I'm wrong when I shorten 'John is' to 'John's'
I agree, I've seen a lot of mistakes in Spanish. Like "de" meaning "grow!" Or only putting one pronoun like "suyo" only says his.
"soldered" is a correct translation for "soldado", past participle of the verb "soldar". E.g. "el eslabón estaba soldado". Of course if it was listed under occupations then in this case it was not the right translation.
Same with "gafas": as a spanish speaker I would have also chosen "glasses" as the obvious translation, but "(you) jinx" is technically correct.
It seems Duo needs to add a bit of context to the translations.
Also, just for Spanish, I think the omission of the subject is taken to a point so extreme that is not really that useful (as in the second example above - it's correct, just rarely used).
