"Viro kaj virino ludas."

Translation: A man and a woman play.

[DouglasAhlers]

Giggity giggity

[brunofrra]

Wink wink nudge nudge
Say no more!

[Jan154674]

smol bebo smol

[Aden-min]

Malgranda bebo malgranda.

[4oh4]

It says it is wrong when you remove the articles.

[BillWarren2]

Without the articles the English is a poetic collective personification.

[przezdzink]

hehe

[frozenjim]

Well, if articles don't exist in Esperanto - then how can you enforce their usage in the translations? "man and woman play" is pretty much the actual literal translation - isn't it?

[CloudeAytr]

No, in Esperanto lack of an article makes a noun singular. In English lack of an article makes a noun a collective personification.

When we say "man has come a long way", we don't mean one singular man. We mean mankind or humanity or some other general statement about men in general.

We have to translate singular to singular. Viro = A man

[frozenjim]

Wow, I just got it wrong on the review too (not so smart!).

[arono3]

Play what? A tuba? A game of monopoly?

[Cath276396]

Either of them:
"Viro kaj virino ludas muzikal instrumenton" aŭ "Viro kaj virino ludas tabulludon"

[Zapolleus]

en lito

[KherryKandy]

So that's what they're calling it nowadays...

[JeanLouis392474]

man and woman, without the articles was not so wrong!

[walt921586]

If no context is given, then allow a literal translation for English can be a subtle (perfidious) language.

[andybeals]

I was going to point out that the the choice among "a", "one", "some", "the", or even "man and woman" without modifiers all depends on the surrounding context. English - she is a harsh mistress.

[andybeals]

"The man and woman are playing." was also marked wrong, yet it's a correct translation. I could see where you'd want "a man...", but if you're going to say that a definite article is wrong, then you must accept "Some man and some woman" or "Some man and woman".