89 Comments
Apparently, "doble de" means "twice as", such as in the sentence "twice as much" or "twice as strong." Something that Duolingo neglected to explain.
After each lesson, I go over the words on the vocabulary page and note the other meanings. It helps tremendously.
I'm sorry. When I wrote that, there used to be a vocabulary tab right next to the discussion tab at the top of the page. It's not there anymore. But rumor has it they may bring it back. I hope they do. It was really helpful.
I have a google dictionary/ sorry, 'word search'. on my desktop - it is not very sophisticated, but goodenough for me
they don't say that it means FOLD, this is a choice of answers. It's up to you to choose the right one.
They often put the correct option as first, which in this case was "twice" and "to fold" was second.
If you press the turtle button below the speaker button it repeats the sentence slowly and it becomes more apparent that it's two separate words :) Helps me a lot!
Is it "el doble" rather than just "doble" for a particular grammatical reason or just something I should memorize?
This was very unclear on what it meant. It would be helpful if they put double or twice in the dictionary above fold.
I'm guessing that dobler (to double something) means to fold it, which makes practical sense. The problem is that DuoLingo clearly doesn't yet have the ability to selectively show different definitions based on context, because there are many many verbs that are spelled the same as (usually related) nouns, et cetera. Once they figure out a work around this, many problems will be solved.
When I mouse over doble it shows twice as the first tanslation. I think they fixed it.
"You have double the strength of me" was not accepted...hmmmm. Not very lenient on this particular sentence.
479
True, but "You have twice my strength" is accepted, while "You are twice my strength" is not. Por lo tanto, Duolingo no es lógico.
"me" is incorrect English.
If you finish the sentence you realize that instantly. You'd never say "You are twice as strong as me is", right?
"You are twice as strong as me" would be incorrect (though common enough for me not to nitpick at it), but that's not what maryintx proposed. She said, "You have twice the strength of me," which is a little awkward-sounding, but "me" is the correct word to use in that case.
No, that is not correct English. "You are two times stronger than I." would be closer to what you are trying to say.
whaaat...! yea that makes perfect sense, but not if you tell me doble = fold.
In the Mirriam Webster English dictionary, the fifth definition (out of nine) for "double" is "folded in two."
Just because double isn't used as often in English to mean "folded in two" doesn't mean "dobler" in Spanish isn't one of the most common uses.
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Exactly pinkygreen. At this point I am kind of confused by the number of people who haven't grasped that this is a Spanish language learning program, and not an English translated directly into Spanish program.
you are twice the strength that I am ... why isn't that an accurate translation?
You are not strength. You are strong. You have strength. You're using the wrong words.
I looked this up. ''Fuerza'' (strength) is a noun. ''Fuerte'' (strong) is an adjective. Also, even if you translate it using a noun, you would say "You have twice the strength that I have'' (or ''that I do''). You can't ''be'' (your ''you are'' and ''I am'') strength in English.
It actually equals THAN.
Let's break it down. Shall we?
"Eres el doble de fuerte que yo."
Literal translation: *"You are [the] double [of] strength than I."
Eres = You are
el doble = double
de fuerte = (the) strength
que yo = than I/as me
el doble de fuerte = twice as strong (double the strength)
In this case AS = THAN.
I hope that helps. ^_^
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Thanks. Some of you folks really get this stuff. My problem is one word equals one word. not two words equaling one. I'll just keep plugging along
You're welcome.
I've been studying Spanish for a long time, and trust me when I say you get used to it. The stuff that seems difficult now will eventually seem like "Wow, how didn't I get that before?"
Good luck with your studies!
It would be technically incorrect to use mi or me. You wouldn't say "You are twice as strong as me is." Would you?
To the people asking why ME doesn't work, it is because you would not say something like, "You are twice as strong as me is."
The is is implied.
No, no lo es.
"You're twice as strong than I." es realmente mala inglés.
- 479
Because the phrase has a parallel structure: "You are" "I am" are conjugations of the same verb ("to be"). You can't "do" what someone else "is."
As you'll see from various comments on this particular forum, one of the big debates is whether "I" or "me." is correct here, but no one is debating whether we can use "I am" versus "I do."
Re the "I/me," English grammarians regularly have dust-ups over this. In this sentence, most casual English speakers use "me." The formal way (read "correct" for some) is "I."
Duolingo is inconsistent in its application of formal versus general use: sometimes it is formal only, sometimes it gives us the general usage only and sometimes it allows both. Your job: to outguess Duolingo in these matters, then fight righteously for whatever grammatical side you are on. :)
Thank you so much for the clarification I really appreciated :)) Forgive me I'm not a native English speaker.
Though, it's worth noting that im English "do" often be used in such a situation (as something like a shorthand for other verbs): "you have twice as much money as I do", is fine, and in fact (in my dialect at least) more natural than "... as much money as I have".
The problem with your sentence is just that "to be" is (I think) the only verb for which the above (substituting "do" for another verb) doesn't apply. It's the same principle as "do you have?"/"I don't", but "are you?"/"I'm not" (never "I don't" for the verb "to be").
why "two times stronger" and "twice as strong" and "twice stronger" is grammatically wrong in English? Can someone explain me? Thanks.
I wrote the same as what you say is the correct answer! But you tell me it's wrong!!!
Of course. The sentence given says you are which is a condition rather some thing you have. Also strong is an adjective and strength is a noun. So your sentence has an entirely different structure.
Different structure, but same meaning. to have strength can only mean to be strong, no?
I'm thinking that it might help to memorize a sentence like this verbatim and then use it as a pattern to try to plug in the little articles in similar sentences. Otherwise, I don't see a way to learn where all of these de, el, que, words etc., go.
The suggestion for Eres says "are you" but in the sentence it's used as "you are". A tad confused
Why does duolingo always manage to come up with awkward phrases. Most can only be used in very specific situations. i've never said some of this stuff in my native language. They should find a frequency list and stick to it
I think more so than the specific phrases, they try to teach the smaller, more usable phrases (like, "doble de [adjetivo] que [nombre]). I agree that they should stick to the frequency list more, though, but add in phrases like this instead of just words.
Frequency list? You may never have used the phrase, "Please don't shoot me in the head," in your entire life. But if you do need to use that phrase, it will be the most important thing you ever said. A broad vocabulary is a sign of literacy. A frequency list restricts your communication ability to sentences like, "Me Tarzan, you Jane.
Actually, the point of a frequency list isn't to restrict your vocabulary. It is to give you a foundation to build on. However, since Duolingo teaches about 1500 words (at least in Spanish), you should have more than enough to build on. By the time you're done with Duolingo you should be able to read a Spanish easy reader children's books and understand some simpler t.v shows. You should be able to read enough of a newspaper that you can learn more from context clues.
If DL collected information on individual users such as location, profession, income level, age, sex, hobbies, etc, etc, and then compiled an individual frequency list, I could see the value. But a generalized frequency list would would miss everyone's needs to varying degrees.
A frequency list is nothing more than the most used words/phrases in a language. It wouldn't match anyone's specific needs. That's not the point of a frequency list. It is to get the most common words in the language. That way you can listen to native speakers and expand on what you already know.
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Excellent point. It's also about sentence structures.
"Please don't shoot me in the head" or the like may not be something the average person will use, but "Please don't feed me in the afternoon" "Please don't touch me when I'm working," "Please don't shout"...etc."etc. etc. etc are structures we are learning.
The better we get at switching nouns, adjectives, subordinate phrases, etc. about within common sentence structures, the more resources we have to converse naturally in a second language.
