Forum Rocket Chinese Chinese Grammar how would you parse this sentence

how would you parse this sentence

Robert-C7

Robert-C7

Consider this sentence from Rosetta Stone.

这些狗里有一只穿红色的毛衣
zhè xiē gǒu li yǒu yī zhǐ chuān hóngsè de máoyī

This seems to be saying "one of these dogs wears a red sweater".  Does "这些狗里有一只" translate to the "one of these dogs"?  Am I interpreting the sentence correctly?

Lin-Ping

Lin-Ping

Robert 你好!

Yes, you are interpreting that right but to me that sounds a bit weird.

I would be more inclined to say:

这些狗之间,有一只穿红色的毛衣。zhè xiē gǒu zhijiān, yǒu yī zhǐ chuān hóngsè de máoyī.

Chinese prefer to speak in more bit-sized chunks and the original sentence sounds a bit unnatural.

Keep up the good work   -   加油!

   -   Lin Ping

 

Robert-C7

Robert-C7

Thank you for your answer.  I often find simple English sentence like "one of these dogs wears a red sweater" to be challenging to translate and often Rosetta Stone's sentences seem somewhat contrived.

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