In some sentences & questions Duolingo uses [for example] UBen or USarah when using someone's name but at other times, names are just Ben or Sarah.
Is there a rule to tell when to use the 'U' prefix in front of names and when the correct answer is simply the name without the prefix?
Dear anyone,
Your duolingo forum registration isn't automaticaly transferred to duome forum so in order to join duome forums you need to register with your existing or any other username and email; in any case it's advised that you choose a new password for the forum.
~ Duome Team
Rules for the prefix 'U' in front of names
Rules for the prefix 'U' in front of names
Re: Rules for the prefix 'U' in front of names
Yes! There is a rule! You remove the "u" when you are addressing someone directly. Grammatically this is the vocative case (in English, the vocative case is identical to all the other cases, so we don't notice). You remove the prefix when you are speaking to someone, rather than speaking about them.
So:
Sawubona, Sarah! - Hello, Sarah!
USarah uhlala - Sarah sits.
The same pattern applies to words like ugogo (grandma) and ubaba (dad). It also applies to nouns in other classes, too, like: Sawubona, nyoni! Hello, bird!
- Duome
- ↳ Duome Related Subforums
- ↳ Announcements by Duome
- ↳ Duome's How-to Guides
- ↳ Requests new Duome features
- ↳ Troubleshooting Duome
- Language Learning Products
- ↳ Product Specific Q&A
- ↳ Anki
- ↳ Busuu
- ↳ Clozemaster
- ↳ Duolingo
- ↳ How to ...
- ↳ HiNative
- ↳ iTalki
- ↳ Memrise
- ↳ Readlang
- Sentences
- ↳ Sentence Discussions
- ↳ Unanswered Sentence Discussions
- Language Discussions
- ↳ I speak English
- ↳ Discussions
- ↳ Achievements
- ↳ Random Thoughts
- ↳ Discussions
- ↳ I'm learning...
- ↳ Arabic
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Chinese (Mandarin)
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Czech
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Danish
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ Dutch
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Esperanto
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Finnish
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ French
- ↳ Questions
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Traductions de textes
- ↳ Les proverbes
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Guidebook
- ↳ Topic
- ↳ Verbs
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ DuoStories
- ↳ Words
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ German
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Proverbs
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Greek
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Haitian Creole
- ↳ Hawaiian
- ↳ Hebrew
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Biblical Hebrew
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Alefbet
- ↳ Hebrew Practice
- ↳ High Valyrian
- ↳ Hindi
- ↳ Hungarian
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Indonesian
- ↳ Irish
- ↳ Italian
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Japanese
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Klingon
- ↳ Korean
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Latin
- ↳ Grammatica
- ↳ Sententiarum explicatio
- ↳ Humanitas et scientia
- ↳ Materia studii
- ↳ Scriptorium
- ↳ Navajo
- ↳ Norwegian (Bokmål)
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ Polish
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Culture and society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Questions and answers
- ↳ Portuguese
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Romanian
- ↳ Questions and answers
- ↳ Russian
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Sentence discussion
- ↳ Scottish Gaelic
- ↳ Spanish
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ México
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Proverbs
- ↳ Swahili
- ↳ Turkish
- ↳ Ukrainian
- ↳ Questions and answers
- ↳ Vietnamese
- ↳ Welsh
- ↳ Xhosa
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Yiddish
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Sentence Discussions
- ↳ Language
- ↳ Practice
- ↳ Zulu
- ↳ Hablo español
- ↳ Debates
- ↳ Noticias y novedades
- ↳ Debates en general
- ↳ Rachas y logros
- ↳ Solución de problemas
- ↳ Estoy aprendiendo...
- ↳ Alemán
- ↳ Idioma
- ↳ Sociedad y Cultura
- ↳ Recursos
- ↳ Práctica
- ↳ Catalán
- ↳ Esperanto
- ↳ Francés
- ↳ Guaraní
- ↳ Inglés
- ↳ Idioma
- ↳ Sociedad y Cultura
- ↳ Recursos
- ↳ Práctica
- ↳ Italiano
- ↳ Portugués
- ↳ Ruso
- ↳ Sueco
- ↳ 我说普通话
- ↳ 我在学习...
- ↳ 英语
- ↳ 法语
- ↳ 意大利语
- ↳ 日语
- ↳ 韩语
- ↳ 西班牙语
- ↳ 中文(粤语)
- ↳ Je parle français
- ↳ Discussion générale
- ↳ Archives de Duolingo
- ↳ Discussion
- ↳ J'apprends...
- ↳ l'anglais
- ↳ l'allemand
- ↳ l'espagnol
- ↳ l'espéranto
- ↳ l'italien
- ↳ le Portugais
- ↳ Falo português
- ↳ Discussões
- ↳ Notícias
- ↳ Debate geral
- ↳ Conquistas
- ↳ Solução de problemas
- ↳ Estou aprendendo...
- ↳ Alemão
- ↳ Espanhol
- ↳ Esperanto
- ↳ Francês
- ↳ Inglês
- ↳ Italiano
- ↳ أتحدث العربية
- ↳ الأقسام
- ↳ المواضيع اللغوية
- ↳ الحوارات والنقاشات
- ↳ الثقافة والمجتمع
- ↳ الحِكم والنصائح
- ↳ الكتب والمؤلفات
- ↳ القصص والحكايات
- ↳ مؤلفات الأعضاء
- ↳ الدروس والشروحات
- ↳ الترفيه والتسلية
- ↳ الإنجازات
- ↳ الفضاء الشخصي
- ↳ الطلبات والمشاكل والحلول
- ↳ أتعلم...
- ↳ الألمانية
- ↳ الإنجليزية
- ↳ السويدية
- ↳ الفرنسية
- ↳ Ich spreche Deutsch
- ↳ Diskussion
- ↳ Allgemeine Diskussion
- ↳ Erfolge
- ↳ Ich lerne ...
- ↳ Englisch
- ↳ Französisch
- ↳ Grammatik
- ↳ Italienisch
- ↳ Spanisch
- ↳ Parlo italiano
- ↳ Sto imparando...
- ↳ Francese
- ↳ Inglese
- ↳ Spagnolo
- ↳ Tedesco
- ↳ 日本語を話します
- ↳ 討論
- ↳ ニュース
- ↳ 討論会
- ↳ 達成
- ↳ トラブルシュート
- ↳ 日本語から習います
- ↳ 英語
- ↳ 中国語
- ↳ 韓国語
- ↳ フランス語
- ↳ Я говорю по-русски
- ↳ Обсуждение
- ↳ Я изучаю...
- ↳ Английский
- ↳ Испанский
- ↳ Немецкий
- ↳ Французский
- ↳ Польский
- ↳ ik spreek Nederlands
- ↳ Discussie
- ↳ Algemeen
- ↳ Ik leer ...
- ↳ Duits
- ↳ Engels
- ↳ Frans
- ↳ Ben Türkçe konuşuyorum
- ↳ — türkçeden (tr)
- ↳ almanca
- ↳ ingilizce
- ↳ rusça
- ↳ Beszélek magyarul
- ↳ Tanulok...
- ↳ Angol
- ↳ Német
- ↳ Tôi nói tiếng Việt
- ↳ ... từ Tiếng Việt (vi)
- ↳ tiếng Anh
- ↳ tiếng Trung Quốc
- ↳ আমি বাংলায় কথা বলি
- ↳ আমি ইংরেজি শিখছি
- ↳ Mluvím česky
- ↳ Učím se anglicky
- ↳ Μιλάω ελληνικά
- ↳ ... από τα ελληνικά (el)
- ↳ Αγγλικά
- ↳ मैं हिंदी बोलते हैं
- ↳ ... हिंदी भाषा से (hi)
- ↳ अंग्रेजी
- ↳ Saya berbicara bahasa Indonesia
- ↳ ... dari bahasa Indonesia (id)
- ↳ Bahasa Inggris
- ↳ 나는 한국어를 해요
- ↳ ... 한국어에서 (ko)
- ↳ 영어
- ↳ Mówię po polsku
- ↳ Dyskusje
- ↳ Nowości i powiadomienia
- ↳ Sprawy techniczne
- ↳ Osiągnięcia
- ↳ O wszystkim i o niczym
- ↳ Uczę się...
- ↳ Angielski
- ↳ Język
- ↳ Kultura
- ↳ Zasoby Edukacyjne
- ↳ Praktyka
- ↳ Dyskusje o zdaniach
- ↳ Vorbesc românește
- ↳ ... din română (ro)
- ↳ Engleză
- ↳ ฉันพูดภาษาไทย
- ↳ ภาษาอังกฤษ
- ↳ Nagsasalita ako ng tagalog
- ↳ ... mula sa tagalog (tl)
- ↳ Ingles
- ↳ నేను తెలుగు భాష మాట్లాడతాను
- ↳ నేను ఆంగ్ల భాష నేర్చుకుంటున్నాను
- ↳ Я розмовляю українську мову
- ↳ Обговорення
- ↳ Discussion
- ↳ Англійську
- ↳ English
- ↳ Parlo català
- ↳ Dw i'n siarad cymraeg
- ↳ Jeg taler dansk
- ↳ Puhun suomea
- ↳ Labhraím Gaeilge
- ↳ Tha Gàidhlig na h-Alba agam
- ↳ אני מדברת עברית
- ↳ Jeg snakker norsk (Bokmål)
- ↳ yááłti' diné bizaad
- ↳ Runasimita rimani
- ↳ Swedish / Svenska
- ↳ Allmän - General
- ↳ Enkät
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Hi Native, låter det naturligt?
- ↳ Frågor och svar / Frågesport
- ↳ FAQ Vanliga frågor
- ↳ Frågor och svar
- ↳ Frågesport (Quiz)
- ↳ Meningar, uttryck och talesätt.
- ↳ Ordförråd och teman
- ↳ Byggstenar för meningar
- ↳ Uttryck och talesätt
- ↳ Grammatik, bibliotek och arkiv
- ↳ Grammatik
- ↳ Bibliotek
- ↳ How-to
- ↳ Rules
- ↳ Guides
- ↳ Arkiv
- ↳ Rätta min svenska
- ↳ Lyssna, förstå bättre
- ↳ Uttal, tala bättre
- ↳ Skriv bättre, stavning och stil
- ↳ Resurser för svenska
- ↳ Böcker
- ↳ Onlinekurser
- ↳ Media (Web, TV, Radio)
- ↳ Ordböcker - Grammatik
- ↳ Konversation
- ↳ Översättningshjälp
- ↳ Självbedömning
- ↳ Flashcards
- ↳ Lärare
- ↳ läroböcker - självstudier
- ↳ Bloggar och vloggar
- ↳ Träffpunkten - språk och kultur
- ↳ Träffpunkten - Evenemang
- ↳ Om svenska språket
- ↳ Om svenska kultur
- ↳ Min svenska läroplan
- ↳ Idéer (Ideas)
- ↳ CEFR A1/A2
- ↳ CEFR B1/B2
- ↳ CEFR C1/C2
- ↳ Berättelse - Stories, novels, poems and articles
- ↳ Artificiell intelligens (A.I.)
- ↳ Naongea kiswahili
- ↳ איך רעד יידיש
- ↳ Mi parolas Esperanton
- ↳ Old English Languages
- ↳ Anglo-Saxon
- ↳ Grammar
- ↳ Vocabulary
- ↳ Resources
- ↳ Sentence discussions
- ↳ Culture & Society
- ↳ Languages not yet covered...
- ↳ Conlangs