Duolingo / American English question

[mikeymikec]

I'm doing a German Duolingo course. The sentence it just asked me to translate was "Gehen Sie elf Minuten geradeaus". In German, the sentence is fine.

Absolutely literal translation: Go you eleven minutes straight ahead

If I was asked to translate this in my own words, I would translate it as an instruction that you should go straight ahead for eleven minutes (e.g. a satnav telling the driver where to drive).

However, the words I'm asked to choose from are:

Drive, credit card, to, me, go, straight, ahead, eleven, minutes

Obviously some of those are red herrings, but for lack of the word 'for', I ended up choosing "go straight ahead eleven minutes", which it marked as correct however it's pretty janky English where I'm from. I guess if I was hurriedly giving instructions to someone driving and I was dropping as many not-strictly-necessary words as possible then they would likely understand, but is this a sentence that would be considered normal in American English or is Duolingo's rep for cutting corners, firing professionals and using AI wherever possible showing here?

...

Before posting this, I went a bit further into the Duolingo lesson and it asked me another similar sentence to translate into English, this time it gave me the word 'for' to use...

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm doing a German Duolingo course. The sentence it just asked me to translate was "Gehen Sie elf Minuten geradeaus". In German, the sentence is fine.

Absolutely literal translation: Go you eleven minutes straight ahead

If I was asked to translate this in my own words, I would translate it as an instruction that you should go straight ahead for eleven minutes (e.g. a satnav telling the driver where to drive).

However, the words I'm asked to choose from are:

Drive, credit card, to, me, go, straight, ahead, eleven, minutes

Obviously some of those are red herrings, but for lack of the word 'for', I ended up choosing "go straight ahead eleven minutes", which it marked as correct however it's pretty janky English where I'm from. I guess if I was hurriedly giving instructions to someone driving and I was dropping as many not-strictly-necessary words as possible then they would likely understand, but is this a sentence that would be considered normal in American English or is Duolingo's rep for cutting corners, firing professionals and using AI wherever possible showing here?

...

Before posting this, I went a bit further into the Duolingo lesson and it asked me another similar sentence to translate into English, this time it gave me the word 'for' to use...

I've (likely incorrectly) used phrasing like that plenty of times before. Namely with measurements I guess, 'go down the road a quarter mile' kind of things... I guess action, subject, specificity of action at the end being implied without the 'for' in there as it's redundant.

 

[manly]

Before posting this, I went a bit further into the Duolingo lesson and it asked me another similar sentence to translate into English, this time it gave me the word 'for' to use...

Based on this, it's probably just a quirk in the one sentence.
I've used Duolingo for years and you'll see a mistake every now and then. This one isn't terribad, but like you said it's a bit better (and correct) with the word 'for'.

 

[lxskllr]

Go straight ahead. 11 minutes<-sentence fragment.

It's uncomfortable phrasing, and I wouldn't say it's entirely accurate when absolutely limited to those words, but people will understand.

 

[NuclearNed]

Different languages have different sentence structures. For example, if I wanted to say in French "I gave it to them" the way it is structured in French is "I it them gave"

I have a hard time getting my English-speaking head wrapped around that...

 

[herm0016]

If you go by duo, i would be taking about owls and horses a lot more while i was in a French speaking country.
Some of the phrasing is a bit odd, but hopefully that means they have native speakers making the lessons.

 

[Perknose]

Based on this, it's probably just a quirk in the one sentence.
I've used Duolingo for years and you'll see a mistake every now and then. This one isn't terribad, but like you said it's a bit better (and correct) with the word 'for'.

^^^ This.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

My biggest issue with Duolingo is it doesn't just let you directly translate into a language with the same grammatical structure. It actually makes it easier for me to understand other languages when you think the grammar but in English.

Instead Duo wants you to both translate both the grammer and the vocabulary, which is kind of annoying and gets in the way of comprehension.

 

[manly]

My biggest issue with Duolingo is it doesn't just let you directly translate into a language with the same grammatical structure. It actually makes it easier for me to understand other languages when you think the grammar but in English.

Instead Duo wants you to both translate both the grammer and the vocabulary, which is kind of annoying and gets in the way of comprehension.

Huh? Am I misunderstanding?

Why would you want English grammar where it doesn't fit in another language?

Unfortunately, that's part of the challenge in language learning. You have to re-train your brain to deal with foreign grammar or idioms.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Drive straight ahead for eleven minutes .... at what speed?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Huh? Am I misunderstanding?

Why would you want English grammar where it doesn't fit in another language?

Unfortunately, that's part of the challenge in language learning. You have to re-train your brain to deal with foreign grammar or idioms.

I am saying I want duolingo to accept the literal translation: Gehen Sie elf Minuten geradeaus : Go you eleven minutes straight ahead

Instead Duolingo wants me to translate into english grammar "Go straight ahead (for) eleven minutes" even though it introduces an extra translation step in my brain that gets in the way of understanding. "Go you eleven minutes straight ahead" still makes grammatical sense and all I have to do at that point is translate the words and tenses.

 

[manly]

I am saying I want duolingo to accept the literal translation: Gehen Sie elf Minuten geradeaus : Go you eleven minutes straight ahead

Instead Duolingo wants me to translate into english grammar "Go straight ahead (for) eleven minutes" even though it introduces an extra translation step in my brain that gets in the way of understanding. "Go you eleven minutes straight ahead" still makes grammatical sense and all I have to do at that point is translate the words and tenses.

Are you kidding me? No English speaker would talk this way, and we'd be weirded out if spoken to as such.

If all you want to learn are discrete words, then you can do flash cards. To learn sentences via translation practice, you have to deal with different grammar. It's hard, but it's kind of the whole point.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Are you kidding me? No English speaker would talk this way, and we'd be weirded out if spoken to as such.

If all you want to learn are discrete words, then you can do flash cards. To learn sentences via translation practice, you have to deal with different grammar. It's hard, but it's kind of the whole point.

- Yeah, but the literal translation helps me learn German grammar, which is what I am trying to do. Ofc its weird to an English speaker, that's the point, it's *not weird to a German speaker* and that is how I have to train my mind.

By translating it into English and expecting me to use words that aren't even present in the original German, you're actually placing a handicap on my understanding.

Otherwise I am trained to translate into German using English grammar, and then that grammar is *weird for a German speaker* which is what I am trying to avoid.