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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Ele foi mal no exame."
17 Comments
Would 'he "went" badly on the exam' not also be fine? That would be perfectly acceptable in (Australian) English.
Maybe as you said, it's okay to say that in Australian English, but to me it sounds really strange. I'd never say that myself. The English on duolingo is supposed to be American English, so I guess that's why it marked your translation as incorrect.
Yeah sorry Andy that doesn´t seem that something a native English speaker would say.. That would be like he was sick so he went badly or something? haha really awkward Said the American but I´ve never heard my Australian friends say anything like that either
I guess it makes more sense if you think of the past tense response to the question 'How did you go on the exam?': i.e 'I went well/badly'. That would be the most common way to phrase the question/response - in Australia at least! And yes we are native English speakers too... ;) Maybe a Brit can back me up here...!
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“He went badly” sounds wrong to me as a Brit too, but if it’s valid in Australian English, it should be an acceptable answer.
Duolingo’s English shouldn’t be only American English, it should just be English, and in fact there are already many answers that are not American English. Just as there are (as there should be) answers that are European Portuguese rather than Brazilian Portuguese.
In American English, we wouldn't even ask "How did you go on the exam?", it would always be "How did you do?"
However, if someone asked you "How did you do on the exam," you could answer "It went badly," and that would be acceptable.
Hi Andy - as a Brit, I agree that we would say the exam went badly. We wouldn't say he went badly though. Sorry!
I tried "He has done badly", which was marked wrong. No objection, as "He did badly" would seem to be a better translation. However, in response to Australian queries, in British English one would never use "He went badly" or "How did you go" in this context. Rather "How did you do" or "How did you get on" in the exam
The situations are incorrectly determine and interpreted and normaly this is not the common expression for an american individual
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It is a pity that recently there are so many sentences which english translation does not really make sense. I would recommend DL to check with a native speaker prior to publishing them
This is a more literal translation that does not work in Portuguese.
- 857
Thanks. Am I right that foi is past tense of ir here? So present tense would be "Ele vai mal no exame."
Yes. "Foi" is the past tense of "ir". Most of the time, "Ele vai mal no exame" is used to express a future event.
