Hi @maloy645361,
I checked on your profile that you are learning English 1 for Russian speakers (American English and British English).
What is the course that presents this problem? Or does the problem appear in both courses? And the problem appears at what level?
I’ve changed the title of your topic so people know what course it needs to be corrected.
@pasha75 (Russian Language Specialist at Memrise), can you check this out, please?
6 Likes
I didn’t see that you had already responded, Milamy!
So I have just added a bit to the thread title, hope you don’t mind.
2 Likes
I may be wrong, but looking at the second screenshot in the OP, I’m wondering if maloy645361 is saying that the Memrise definition for this item (“the country”) is incorrect and should instead say “countryside”.
In English, “the country” and “countryside” can be interchangeable. As well as meaning a political unit (such as Russia or England), “country” and "countryside) can mean an area of natural land or a particular area. Maybe these definitions will help:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/country
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/countryside
Perhaps this entry needs an ‘alt’ or two?
3 Likes
Depending on what word is meant, then the definition of the word could simply be lengthened a bit, “country, as in ‘nation’” would do the trick for the one meaning, and “country, as in ‘countryside’” for the other one.
Hi @maloy645361
Thank you for flagging this. This item is there to show the difference in meaning between “a country” (страна), and “the country” which is usually used to mean “the countryside”, but as rightly pointed out here, can also mean “the nation” (страна) just like “a country”.
Here is the entry of this usage of “country” in the Oxford English Dictionary.
In order to help clarify this, I have changed the Russian definition of “the country” to “сельская местность; страна”, and I have made sure that “the country” is also an accepted answer when prompted with “страна”.
I hope this helps!
Rob,
English Language Specialist at Memrise
NB: this usage of “country” is more common in British English than in US English, but is used in both 
9 Likes
The post below has been put in “Memrise Bug Control”, but I am not sure if that is the right place for it, so I am posting a link to it here.
@Rob_Paterson: Can you look into this? There are 19 words in a 20-word level and it is causing problems. Is that something you can fix?
http://community.memrise.com/t/bug-course-english-3-for-russian-speakers-level-34/39432
Moved from Decks forum.
Moved from Decks:
