29 Comments
I think 'right' for 'is ea' should have been accepted but im not confident enough in that to report it.
There's no /exact/ translation. I went with "You have a mouse do you? No" and got marked wrong. Who cares about pedantry! Good enough!
It's not even pedantry, it's a better translation, isn't it? Lots of languages have invariable tag questions, n'est-ce pas, but in Standard English you echo the subject and auxiliary verb. don't you.
I feel nach bhfuil or an bhfuil would be better here than an ea. An ea would (in my opinion) be used in a sentence like Luch atá agat, an ea?
I wrote, "You have a mouse, do you?" Apparently, that didn't make the correct answer list. As a native English speaker, I'm scratching my head over how that's different than, "You have a mouse, don't you?" Don't both questions expect the answer to be yes? Is one more correct than the other?
Are you from the UK or Ireland? In the US, that doesn't sound natural. Then again, they didn't accept, "You have a mouse, right? I do not"
There are subtly different implications though. "You have a mouse, do you?" feels like it's questioning our challenging an assertion from the mouse owner. "You have a mouse, don't you?" comes off as an assertion asking for confirmation; or even a reminder to the mouse owner that yes, they have a mouse.
Not sure about that. You have a mouse, do you? sounds more surprised whereas don't you is more asking for confirmation. But who's to say which the questioner meant?
Neither of the translations given sound natural in English although they may be literally correct. Surely it should be acceptable to give the nearest natural sounding equivalent?
Why is "do you have a mouse" marked wrong? I had the rest of the translation marked right.
Because this isn't a question form. It's a statement, then asking for clarification.
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(This is an actual question about how literal our translations are supposed to be, not just an error report.) Since Irish doesn't have "no", I expected the English answer not to have "no." I wrote "I don't" instead, which was marked wrong. Should it have been an acceptable answer? Should an acceptable English version go even further and use an even more literal translation of "Ní hea"?
Most English people would probably say 'no', so that is the more natural sounding translation. However I often use the form that repeats the verb, e.g. 'I don't' in this case. This may be a bit of Irish influence on the English language of course. Also, 'No, I don't' is quite normal in English, especially when confirming or emphasising something. So I would say you could use any of them and be correct.
This is really difficult when you get the answer correct, but don't use the exact words that are given in the official answer. Instead of saying "is that so", I put "don't you". It's frustrating to have that happen. I need a little leeway, y'know?
The problem is that Tá luch agat, nach bhfuil? is the Irish for "You have a mouse, don't you?"
While "You have a mouse, don't you?" and "You have a mouse, is that so?* are similar in meaning, they aren't the same, and they each have different translations.
Thanks for the input. Guess there's a reason why people say that Irish is more difficult than most to learn. Baby steps . . . baby steps . . .
I wrote .... "You have a mouse, is it? No."
And it was an 'acceptable' answer.
My Irish speaking wife says "is it?" all the time in English. Like "You have to work tonight, is it?" Honestly I think you have the most natural speaking answer.
I agree. If they can translate it is not loosely they can also translate right loosely
I wrote: "You have a mouse, don't you? I don't." I got it "wrong" and was corrected to: You have a mouse, don't you? Isn't it. I know that English tag questions are a minefield - their difficulty goes a long way to explain the use of tag responses like London "innit?"(corruption of isn't it?), in imitation of n'est-ce pas and nicht wahr. In the UK, the Welsh have used it for a long time. "We'll beat the English next time, isn't it?" But to be hoist by my own petard in this fashion is galling!
You didn't happen to take a screenshot, did you? Because mixing up ní hea and nach ea is pretty unusual.
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The inconsistency for how they want the "an ea" translated is annoying! It didn't accept "You have a mouse, do you? No." And yet with "Tá cat aici, an ea? Is ea." I got marked wrong until I translated it as "She has a cat, does she? Yes."
