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- "Hon klipper håret."
32 Comments
Is she cutting her own hair, someone else's hair or is someone else cutting her hair?
It could mean that in either language I would presume. This is a fairly ambiguous sentence.
1371
Late to the party, I just saw this and I'd say it's not ambiguous that way in Swedish, we usually say ett hårstrå for one hair, literally 'a hair straw'. Using ett hår for just a single hair is rare (outside of set expressions and translationese). I would also use another verb for cutting that: Hon klipper av hårstrået.
Could this also be used to mean that she cuts hair in general, as in "She cuts hair", or does this mean she cuts the particular hair? Tack.
- 1371
She cuts hair would be Hon klipper hår. håret here refers either to her own hair, quite likely, or some other previously known hair.
Why can't "clip" be used here? There are such things are hair clippers, and whether the person in question is cutting her own hair or not, some women do wear their hair very short these days.
But we would never say it that way in English. Unless she was only cutting one single hair. It sounds odd.
- 320
Jag läste the instructions för denna section och det förklarde att på svenska, man säger "I am brushing the teeth" instead of "my teeth," och så vidare. If the possible translation had been "She cuts her hair," I would have chosen it. Please change the translation words because "She cuts the hair" is a poor translation.
- 961
when I typed "she cuts hair" I was told it was "she cuts her hair" BTW a Swedish friend of mine kept saying "hairs" instead of hair even though otherwise her English was excellent.
No one would say it like this in English. More like 'She is cutting her hair', but I'm not sure if this is what the Swedish version is telling here.
That's exactly how it's used in Swedish, but since the Swedish sentence doesn't say "hennes hår", Duo won't accept "her hair". Even though that would be a better translation in terms of actual usage.
- 81
Is there an idiom to match English's "splitting hairs", which means to be incredibly precise in an irrelevant and annoying way?
One thing I don't really like about duolingo is that it puts THE hair instead of hair.. it makes the sentence very ambiguous, so I always get confused.. it uses THE (object) instead of (object) in places where it needs to be specified (or not).. I don't know.. is it just me? It's really frustrating sometimes when I get it wrong because of this...
The Swedish sentence also uses the definite:
- hon klipper hår = she cuts hair
- hon klipper håret = she cuts the hair
So it isn't really ambiguous at all - it's a fairly clear system in this case.
- 239
What does it mean "she cuts the hair"? Also, "She is cutting the hair" is not proper English. However, one can say "she cuts hair, she is a hairdresser". Or, one can say: she is cutting his / her hair. Maybe she is cutting the dog's hair.
Yes, I'm not fond of the sentence, either. Swedish would phrase this differently most often as well, and there's little way on Duolingo to teach the nuances, so it would be better to replace it with a different sentence.
It's not just you, it's just Swedish. It's very common for Swedish to use the definite form where English would not. "Jag har ont i halsen" = "I have pain in the throat / My throat hurts." Just another thing one has to get used to.
Oh wow, I didn't see my spelling error... sorry I wasted your time on this!
Speaking with my professional language-teaching hat on: It is not English to say ‘She is cutting the hair.’ She cuts hair (general) or She is cutting (the woman’s) hair (specific example). The translation as given currently is incorrect - perfect Swenglish but bad English and really should have been changed by now.
We do accept nine different variations, for that reason. It's just that the default translation is automatically chosen for the reverse "translate into Swedish" exercise. So if we want to teach this idiomatic translation in Swedish, we have to use unidiomatic English.
