- Forum >
- Topic: Spanish >
- "Tenemos un mes de plazo."
38 Comments
But, the thing is, they need to teach you how to speak spanish. So you need to learn the equivalent Spanish phrases. Yes, its hard, but if it just counted some nonsense as correct just because you technically translated it correctly, then you wouldn't be learning how to speak a different language.
I think that we should be less afraid to get things wrong and lose hearts. It's a learning processes. We might not know right away what the correct phrase is, but we will figure it out eventually.
649
I sometimes share your frustration, but I think we must remember this is a computer generated, user moderated system and all it can give is a literal, word for word translation. We need to plod along before we can soar...! (She said wisely... ;) LOL )
but you have to look at the suggestions they give you, look at the context, and try to find the right english expression. if you think "we have one month of installment" looks wrong, it's because it is! you just have to think more, and you see the option for "period, term, installment..." then think, ok, the other words are clearly "we have" "one month" so think a bit more, a bit more, and boom, obviously it's "we have a one-month period." then you start to see that the other words (term, installment) can also have something to do with periods of time.
in english we would easily answer the question "how much time will it take to train for the race?" with "well I have a one-month window before my son is born."
I have a feeling for someone learning english, seeing that "window" - you know, the things in our houses and cars made of glass - also sometimes refers to "a period of time" would be confusing at first too. that's why it's important to learn and think in the whole expression, not word by word.
That's exactly what I answered and according to the dictionary it was an option. If they want to teach the phrase as a whole then they should give that as the translate, not give us a word for word translation and expect us to know the expression.
Like, in German they say, "Morgen Morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle fallen Leute." It means "Tomorrow, tomorrow, not today, say all the lazy people."
How many people would actually get that it was "Why put off till tomorrow, what you can do today?"
They aren't EXACTLY the same expression so they shouldn't be treated as exactly the same.
That example is much more idiomatic and not really a fair comparison. In the Duolingo sentences, sometimes it can be unclear what we should be writing, but in that case, we just have to get it wrong! That forces us to think about why it was wrong, understand why it was wrong, and in the process understand a little more about how Spanish works.
I'm not here to boast to people how many points I can rack up, I'm here to learn Spanish.