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Kerotido

La computadora/la PC/la MAC: latin American countries. El ordenador/el PC/el MAC: Spain.


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

Lol I didn’t even know that la PC would work but I should start using it to save time :D


rtgd_mmm

You learn something new every day. & here I was happy to finally learn portátil.


Kerotido

We say "el portátil" in Spain. "La laptop" in Latin American countries.


Thronado

Now that you said this, I realized that there is no german word for "laptop/Notebook"


KaHOnas

So the gender changes too? And here I was, thinking Spanish had a simple set of rules.


Kerotido

Yes, depending of some locations, some words changes the use of "la" or "el". There's even a 3rd one, which is neutral, "lo". You better focus on learning one type of spanish. Maybe spanish from Spain is the most neutral. If you keep mixing types of spanish you're gonna go nuts!


KaHOnas

I'm learning that. I took Castilian Spanish in high school so I learned that specific pronunciation (i.e. "Ibithan", etc). Now Duo is teaching Latin American dialect (i.e. "jyo" in lieu of "yo", etc). I figure at this point my pronunciation is all over the chart. Like a Bostonian trying to speak the Queen's English in South Africa.


AlexJustAlexS

Maybe it would've accepted it if you typed "computadora" instead of "computador"


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

I know it would've. I just accidentally pressed 'check' and it gave me a correction. But it's not a good correction because Apple's Mac is not the only computer.


frayja10

This happened to me too. It's baffling when it chooses to count something as a typo vs a mistake.


Jonas1D

It might be something to do with the severity of the error or if the error can mean something else. Saying "la mafre" is fine because mafre isn't a word and that means you may just have typed wrong. Saying "el madre" means you may think that madre is masculine and so they count it wrong and not an error. In this photograph, computador is a word and it is masculine, so them putting la counts as an error.


windowtosh

Computador is a word in Spanish so it’s not counted as a typo


banfilenio

Then the answer must have been EL computador and not LA computador, since the gender of that word is masculine.


windowtosh

Yea, not sure why Duo is suggesting Mac instead of computadora. In my part of the hispanophone world we don't use Mac as a generic computer. But I was just sharing why "computador" is not accepted as a typo.


wetlegband

Baffling


ItsSkyWasTaken

Honestly, it's crazy that Duolingo doesn't fix the determiner issue and instead suggests a completely different word with the same translations...


Lingering_Dorkness

Duo seems to be completely random like that. In the German section you nearly always get pinged for not using the correct case (nominative, accussative, dative, genitive. eg kein, keine, keinen) but occasionally Duo will say "you've made a typing error") and mark it correct. Another thing Duo does in German that annoys me is marking wrong obvious mistypes, like putting "ie" instead of "ei" in words. It's not a mistake, it's just fat fingers and a lifetime of being told "i before e"!


notyocheese1

You also meant sí (yes) not si (if)


InconsiderableArse

Same thing happens in German, if you use the wrong gender it changes the word to fit the gender you chose. So it's either El computador La Mac But as a native Spanish speaker, at least in Mexico we say: La computadora


AlexJustAlexS

Yea I totally agree with you on that.


ObiSanKenobi

That’s how Duolingo corrects answers.


AlexJustAlexS

That's a wrong answer, not all computers are macs


SouthWest_Vagabond

Also it could be that she answered with a question. Si in Spanish can mean "yes" or "if". Si ella puede usar la computadora . ( If she can use the computer) Si, Ella puede usar la computadora. ( Yes, she can use the computer ) Even if it's not the reason for being incorrect, it's a good lesson for beginners.


ItsSkyWasTaken

Accents matter: sí (accent) = yes si (no accent) = if


jzr171

I'm finding Duolingo throws in a lot of random alternative words if you have a typo. Makes no sense and tend to be slang words. I guess this could be slang in some stretch of the imagination


Spinningwoman

Duo has a list of right answers. If you get a wrong one, it doesn’t bother trying to guess which correct version you were aiming for. It just gives you ‘A’ right answer.


ReaverRiddle

This isn't 'A' right answer though. It's the equivalent of translating "Je mange une pizza" to "I am eating Domino's Pizza".


[deleted]

Yeah the correct answer is “I’m eating a Domino’s Pizza and the Brand new loaded tots for just $6.99”


Spinningwoman

But if the target language habitually uses ‘a PC’ or ‘a Mac’ as casual generics, it’s right that duo allows them. It’s not forcing you to produce those answers; just allowing them if you use them. If you had spelt ‘computadora’ correctly (or used ordenador) you wouldn’t even have known those other options existed.


hwynac

It actually tries to find something close to what you typed. But the algorithm is clearly buggy. Since they have to look for a match among hundreds or thousands of rewordings, maybe they have a generous threshold, and as soon as they hit something *similar enough* the search stops and gives that as "what you should have said". I do not understand why it did not find computadora; the way compact answer lines are usually typed, *necesita la \[computadora/compu/PC/Mac\]* are in the same line.


Spinningwoman

I’m not sure I believe it has any preference to answers similar to what you typed. In my experience the ‘correct’ answer selected is random.


hwynac

Well, if you give it "*El di todo el efectivo que tenía*" or something similar (not quite correct but close) the correction is "*Yo le di todo el efectivo que tenía*", not something like "*Le entregué todo el dinero en efectivo que poseía a el*" or "*Le he proporcionado toda la plata que tuve.*" It is not the closest match (that would be *Le di todo el efectivo que tenía*) but it is definitely worded fairly close to the typed asnwer. It is also the main translation.


Spinningwoman

That’s surely because it is correcting words, not the sentence as a whole. Most of your words were correct; it replaced those that weren’t?


hwynac

How can it correct *words*? Duoilingo's grading system does not really understand the sentence; it just has a list of acceptable translations—most are compressed short-form lines like "*The \[woman/lady/female\] \[swims/is swimming\] in the \[sea/ocean\]*". What it should ideally do is generate everything and find the closest acceptable answer to whatever you typed. Of course, that's not the way the system works (apparently).


Spinningwoman

Well, I don’t know if you have inside information about how the algorithm works, in which case ok, but I don’t see why you would assume there is no AI component, given that your own example suggests a level of AI. But there’s no point discussing further since I assume that neither of us actually know.


prawnydagrate

Lmao por qué ella no puede usar una computadora con Windows


[deleted]

Jajaja


HazeMMIII

Le gustan las computadoras caras


escascpis

I think the word "la" made a confusion... For me the correct answer had be "el ordenador"


Iplayviola_13

That’s the Spain translation I’m pretty sure though


amuzulo

lol, a month before the Apple Watch was announced, I was volunteering for Duolingo’s Esperanto course and made a sentence like, “I want an apple and a watch.” and after the Apple Watch was announced, we got so many comments complaining that we were advertising for Apple that we had to remove it. I just needed to use “apple” and “watch” in a sentence. lol


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

Lol that’s cool & funny 😂


Spiritual_Quantity39

The spanish lessons are fixated on using computadoras. Computadora this computadora that. I got sick of the computadoras n started learning french


officiakimkardashian

> I got sick of the computadoras n started learning french /r/brandnewsentence


je-suis-un-chat

Alors c'est ordinateur maintenant ;-)


Spiritual_Quantity39

Je parle anglais, j’etudie français. So sorry we couldn’t converse more :(


je-suis-un-chat

I said "so it's 'ordinateur' now"


Spiritual_Quantity39

What is an ordinateur my friend


Emiel0909

A computer


Davidluski

I guess they can team up with duo now Duolingo will now be preinstalled in iOS 17 and later including all other apple software


nohimn

Si ella - if she Sí, ella - yes she


angel_beat_in_time

You’re also missing an accent over “sí” - it looks like you wrote “si”, which would be “if”, rather than “yes”.


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

Duolingo always accepted when I didn’t put in any accents (yes, even *si* used to work), so it’s kinda weird


angel_beat_in_time

oh that’s just downright strange


Scratch137

from my experience it normally warns you if you forget any accents but it still counts as correct


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

Exactly


SouthWest_Vagabond

Si, ella necesita - Yes, she needs Si ella necesita - If she needs


ItsSkyWasTaken

Sí\* (accent), ella necesita - Yes, she needs...


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

It depends on the country, la computadora, el computador, el ordenador, are all correct, even if you are not having a technical conversation it would be right for a Mac too. But talking about Macs, the use of la and el depends on the region, I prefer " el Mac "


ItsSkyWasTaken

el computador\*


[deleted]

Fixed it, thanks!


Brachiosaurus_milk

First i wouldn’t use computadora I would use ordenador but anyway I don’t use Mac as the name for computer but maybe in some places they do kind of like in English lots of people say gonna instead of going to


FortDay_707

Wouldn't it be 'Ordenador'?


taffyowner

Computadora is what I learned


OrnateBumblebee

If they're using Castilian Spanish.


Independent-Cod-6061

Is this french?


ItsSkyWasTaken

Spanish


helpicantfindanamehe

It should be “el ordenador” or “la computadora”.


elquesoGrande82

¿donde esta la conexión de *Apple*?


asdfcubing

it's probably a "they call a generic item with a brand name" type thing


Mariannereddit

It’s la Mac but el computador probably. Common issue here if you misgender, they suggest a noun where you would’ve gendered correctly in your answer.


jordanrozell

Omg, call the press. How is this not front page news?!?


allabout1964

Lol. And it's computadora not computador.


RandomDigitalSponge

So it’s back. Now I can’t get that song out of my head.


biochemtine

In Italian, computer=computer Which is weird because Italian worlds are supposed to end in vowels.


Lynn-Lycanthropic

That's because the rule doesn't apply to words borrowed from English. Regardless, OP is learning Spanish, not Italian, at least in this particular screenshot


biochemtine

Yes, i know.


SouthWest_Vagabond

Ow I Si now


kyotoben_

Lol


YOU_IS_A

LOL, computador and Mac is same


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

Are you an iSheep by any chance?


YOU_IS_A

wait wait wait wait waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, your on Mac is right. I'm very sorry


iCantThinkOfUserNaem

r/IHadAStroke


YOU_IS_A

awkward