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- "Ela não nos deixava ver nove…
"Ela não nos deixava ver novela."
Translation:She would not let us watch soap operas.
27 Comments
Yeah, in English we either pluralize soap opera, or we say "... let us watch the soap opera"
I think the best thing to stop the clutter would be to fix this translation. I wrote "She did not use to let us watch soap operas" and that wasn't accepted. If this translation is incorrect please let me know. I think I figured the used to/ use to thing out finally, so I don't think that is the problem.
765
2019-10-23 I just used the same translation, and Duo rejected it, telling me I missed a word. It suggested "She did not use to let us to watch soap operas," as Ian400723 remarked below. I reported it as both "My answer should be accepted" and "There's another problem", since the "English sentence is unnatural or has an error" option was not available.
"Wouldn't" and "didn't use to" both preserve the none completed/ going on over a period of time flavor of the tense used here, the continuous, rather than the preterite or completed past tense.
Amazingly, "she didn't use to let us watch soap operas" is still not accepted! I will report it...
And, as of April 18, 2019, "She didn't use to let us watch soap operas" is STILL not accepted. So, I reported it, again ...
Notice that neither sentence, English nor Portuguese, has an article.
The translation is fine, "she would not let us watch (any) soap opera".
- 535
Except in English, you need to put the article. Either "She would not let us watch the/a/any soap opera." It is not correct without one....
And what about "She would not let us watch novel."? Is it wrong? Or it makes other sense?
In Enlgish, a novel is a book of fiction. In Spanish, "novela" means both soap opera and novel. In Portuguese, "novela" means soap opera or novella ( a short novel). In English, the noun "novel" is always something you read, not something you watch. The word "novel" is also and adjective meaning "new".
I think it's different. In Portuguese, novela is a TV show with many episodes.
I answered : She didn't let us see the soap opera, why is it wrong?
Correct solutions: • She didn't allow us see the soap opera. • She would not let us watch soap opera.
These two above answers just seem grammatically wrong to me ?!
- 535
Dan, for some reason, I could not reply directly to your question.... yes, you can have plural "soap operas" and then you would not need an article. "She would not let us watch soap operas." That would have the feeling of not being allowed to watch ANY. :)
What about: "she wasn't letting us...", I think it better describes this tense and that "She didn't let us..", is simple past, doesn't seem right to me.
Duolingo offered - She didn´t use to let us to watch the soap opera. Since when has the infinitive ¨to watch¨ been correct?
Aqui permitiu a solução "She didn't let us watch soap opera" as other option, simple past. is it wrong?
"She didn't let us watch soap opera" é errado. Nós precisamos de um artigo antes do "soap opera." Pode ser "She didn't let us watch a soap opera" ou "She didn't let us watch the soap opera."
Como slearch disse, tambem pode ser "She didn't let us watch soap operas."
- 171
If we can decide that "novela" is plural, why can't we add an indefinite article and leave it singular as in "She wouldn't let us see a soap opera."? Either way it is not a literal rendering, just how would the translation sound in English.
