"The boy eats dinner."
Translation:O menino come o jantar.
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1063
And yet 'the boy eats lunch' 'o menino come almoço' is accepted. It's inconsistent, so we just have to guess when the language suddenly needs the article.
1787
I don't find this a very good sample sentence to translate from English as an exercise.
If "O menino come o jantar" is indeed the most common way anyone would hear this offered in Brazeeoo... then the sample sentence should likewise reflect that and include the article 'THE.'
In English this sentence works with and without the article. But in Portuguese apparently it does not. So, why offer the sentence in English without the article... and then expect a learner such as myself to devine that the article is somehow necessary in this case?
I could easily feature that MOST first language English speakers would get this wrong... or at least stumble with it initially anyway. They wouldn't think to add an article... because that didn't appear in the sample English sentence. And they'd not have the benefit of experience with what 'sounds' correct and is commonly said.
while people might get upset that they got the answer wrong because they wouldn't personally know that they need the article (i too had the same experience), i don't think changing the sentence would help anyone whose trying to learn. mistakes is how we learn and improve and most people from the looks of it would never had figured out the proper Portuguese translation is they didn't get it wrong. :) maybe that why its on here granted they should have a lesson on articles and when and why to use them. i don't feel like they explain it really
2166
Yes indeed! Sometimes the best way to learn something is to get it wrong at first. Duolingo is not a competition to see who gets the fewest answers wrong; it's a way to learn a language. Getting some answers wrong is part of the process.
208
How do we differentiate between "The boy eats dinner" and "The boy eats THE dinner" if they both need the article?