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The butterfly writes a whole book and I barely got the sentence right...put me in my place.
You laugh because a butterfly writes a book, but remember that a owl is saying if you are wrong or not.
Chapter 1: I hope I don't get stepped on today. Chapter 2: I hope I don't get stepped on today. Chapter 3: I hate birds. Chapter 4: I hate lizards. Chapter 5: If I die, will the effect cause a hurricane? Chapter 6 It's like I was a pupa only yesterday Chapter 7: No ever suspects me Chapter 8: Well now I'm in a jar
THE END
Write like a butterfly, read like a bee, anyone.? I guess you can call this rope and nope.! Get it.? Cause no likes bees so theyll say no... Ill stop...i have no life.
Why on earth is the word for 'butterfly' the same as the word for 'turnstile'?
I would imagine it's because a turnstile moves like a butterflys wings. Most languages use imaginative metaphors like that.
Now that I know what a turnstile is, I have to say we call it "catraca" in Brazil. I've never heard of "borboleta" to mean a turnstile. But maybe it's a regional thing or it's used in Portugal. But "catraca" is certainly the most used here.
Even the wikipedia page for it doesn't mention "borboleta" as one of the options to call it: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catraca
I believe Rio de Janeiro uses mostly "roleta" for turnstyles.
The closest thing I can imagine for "borboleta" is these kinds of screw/nuts, that are called "borboleta":
By the way:
- Screw = parafuso
- Nut = porca
- Washer = arruela
- Screwdriver = chave de fenda (chave phillips, if "cross-shaped")
- Thread = rosca
- Bolt = pino
Thanks for the useful word list (I'm pretty sure "Splash" should be "Washer" though). We call the thing in the photo a "wingnut".
By the way, the "borboleta" meaning turnstile question was explored here too: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1956383 and judging by the comments it must be a regional thing.
They make it that way so it's not hard for you since that simple and random stuff they add to the sentences is what you have already learned... it doesn't need a meaning, it's just so you get more practice on the past mixing it with the present stuff :) you see?
No, I don't see. And yes, it does need to have a meaning. It's a terrible sentence and a very poor way to learn a language. These sentences are generated by mindless software that just has a sentence template and a list of subjects, verbs, and objects. It's really very bad.
I disagree. I think the reason Duolingo uses such strange sentences is to keep your brain working hard. You noticed the strangeness of the sentence, didn't you? If you had to translate sentences like, "The man writes a letter," or, "The cow eats grass" over and over again it would become monotonous, and you wouldn't notice the way the words and the grammar are working together. You would simply be looking for what you already understand and are familiar with in English, rather than exploring this new language. Just my opinion.
I agree. At first I found the random sentences annoying; I'd like to learn phrases that are useful. But the advantage of sentences like this one is that it makes it harder just to guess the answer from the context - you actually need to know the vocabulary.
Children learn in a similar way. There are plenty of childrens books that have animals that can talk, read, write, etc. Take "Winnie the Pooh" for example. Owl can read, Rabbit does gardening, Kanga can cook, etc. It is just a fun and interesting way to learn words
Technically correct, but in English VS Romance languages, romance langauges use the "to be + gerund" to indicate "at this moment, in the now" (except you, French, you devil!!); whereas the present tense has more a general meaning. English however, uses its present tense form to indicate a habitual action, or as a narrative (i write books, i go to the store on tuesdays; as a narrative: I go into the room. I look around. I see the man.) to indicate an ongoing action, either in the moment or as a general action, english MUST use the "to be + gerund" construction ("Yes, i'm eating dinner right now." "He's watching TV."). In all my linguistic studies, the most used translation of "Je mange du pain//Como pan//Como pão/Mangio pane" would be in English "I'm eating bread." "I eat bread" would be an answer to the question "What do you eat with your soup?" "I eat bread." As far as i understand it, using "Estou/Estoy comiendo" comes across as "Can't you see i'm in the middle of eating and don't want to be disturbed"...native speakers can you give an opinion on this subtle nuance?
I don't want to say you're wrong on your argument but to me the difference between "Ela escreve" and "Ela está escrevendo" is exactly the same difference between "She writes" and "She is writing". One is an habitual or narrated action and the other is an ongoing action. Even with the other latin languages I disagree with the way you translate "I eat bread/I'm eating bread". How exactly would be the answer to "What do you eat with your soup?" in French/Spanish/Italian? It would have to be "Je mange du pain/Como pan/Mangio pane"
Furthermore, you could use the present tense in English to describe an ongoing action: "What does she do now? - She writes a book" but it would sound excessively lyric/poetic. It sounds exactly the same in Portuguese. I recognize the difference is subtle, but it's the same subtle difference as in English.
Yes, the answer to "what do you eat with your soup" is indeed "je mange/como/mangio". Romance languages simply do not use the present progressive in the way English does; any introductory course taught at the college level spells this out specifically very early on to make the point that "je mange/como/mangio" is both "i eat" and "i am eating". The translation depends on the nuance of meaning that you wish to convey in English. I find the example you use in the second paragraph to have two issues:: "What does she do now?" has an implication that she did something differently before e.g. "She quit her job, what does she do now?" If you want to discuss an action in progress, you must indicate this with the present progressive: "What is she doing now?" (emphasis only for tense indication). Secondly, the response "She writes a book" carries a strange implication of completeness that does not fit the question being posed. e.g. "She writes a book (every day)/(a day)"; the reason for this is that a book is only written once and once written, is written forever, but you can eat soup every meal for the rest of your life and still not finish eating soup. More abstractly, to write and to eat are examples of different classes of verbs; each class has distinct syntactic and semantic rules that they follow. I think the answer "she writes books" holds the correct nuance that you seek to convey here, as one can be writing many books at once with no need to have completed any of them. In general,excluding poetry, music lyrics, or archaic styles of speech, English present progressive is the tense most similar semantically and conceptually to Romance simple present. SOURCES: Natively Bilingual in English & French; BA in Romance Language Linguistics; however, i'm happy to cite my sources if you are patient enough to wait for the answer as i do work full time and would have to do some digging in my college texts for some citations.
I'm not sure about your point, but I can ensure a thing: in Portuguese the present continuous(presente contínuo) works exactly as it does in English. If you are talking about an ongoing action, as far as I know, you must use a presente contínuo verb. A usage of a simple present wold seem more like either a scientific fact or an habit. For example, to the question "what is she doing?"(o que ela está fazendo) the more appropriated answer would be "she is doing something"(ela está fazendo algo), it wouldn't be "ela faz algo", because it looks poetic, one may understand you, but the akwardness still exists, that wouldn't be te an answer a native speaker would use at all.
Even though in some cases the present may be used to make a sentence indicating a future action, for example, to the question "teacher, you make the test tomorrow?"[professor você (formal) faz o teste amanhã?] the answer may be "yes, I do"(sim, eu faço ). Despite the fact that the action will happen the following day, it means in the future, the present can be used and I am talking about daily conversation, but my Portuguese teacher that is a linguist does this same point, that explanation is also his. His name is Valter Cezar Andrade.
Paulenrique, por favor, você pode me dizer passo a passo como fazer para que apareça as bandeirinhas dos países lado a lado. Eu, quando mudo de curso só aparece a bandeira do novo curso e os dias, lingots, etc se somam ao outro curso. Então fica um samba do criolo doido rsrsrs Brigaduuuuu
Sentences like this are idiotic. Does this software have a list of subjects and objects and it just matches them up randomly? Sentences like this actually interfere with learning, in my opinion.
Sentences like this one are made by the course developers, not generated randomly by a software. And (in my opinion) the strange context helps one remember what was learned better.
Definitely. At the very least, all of these comments are going to drill this sentence into my head.
Children learn in a similar way. There are plenty of childrens books that have animals that can talk, read, write, etc. Take "Winnie the Pooh" for example. Owl can read, Rabbit does gardening, Kanga can cook, etc. It is just a fun and interesting way to learn words
