Wait, I'm confused.

[3rdragon]

Here's a bit of a dialogue from my portuguese textbook (translated into english):

Sra. Silva: Could you come over for dinner this coming weekend?
Sra. Sousa: Unfortunately that won't be possible this weekend. We have tickets to go to the theater.

Because going to the theater always takes all weekend? Or you can only do one fun thing each weekend?

Comments

[eumeliannyikha.livejournal.com]

Maybe Friday night is the only night people have fun???

[3rdragon]

But the dialogue goes on to suggest that they meet up some other Saturday.

I suppose that Saturday could be the only day that people have fun.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on what kind of theater performance they're attending...

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's culturally implied that "the weekend" when referring to getting together with other people means "Saturday night".

Or perhaps it's just to do with it being a text book, and the people making the examples not thinking about it much.

[3rdragon]

I might suspect the first, only I know that in Spain, "the weekend" starts on Thursday night because all the students go home to their respective villages and aren't in the university towns on Friday or Saturday.
The second is probably right.

[vorindi]

It still makes more sense than the Italian online homework that went as follows:

It's Sunday morning and you call your grandparents but they don't pick up the phone. They must be . . .

a. at church
b. in the living room
c. [someplace else that didn't make sense]
d. [someplace else that didn't make sense]

The answer, of course, was b. Maybe they had lots of tickets to the theater?

[3rdragon]

Praps.

[ellirpa.livejournal.com]

The question is not, "Does this make sense?" The question is, "Does it lack sense in a grammatically correct manner?"
My French teacher related an experience from grading AP exams:
When a student responded to the question, "What would you as a babysitter do if your charge were badly behaved?" with "I'd throw him out the window." full points were awarded because it was grammatically correct and technically answered the question. The point was, it's not really about the situation, but about being able to lie well and quickly to show off your vocabulary.

So the answer was really:
Sra. Sousa: Unfortunately that won't be possible this weekend. We have tickets to go to the theater, and we have already invited your sworn enemy, Sra. M---. A duel would indeed be fine entertainment, but the dry cleaners frown upon house calls to the theater on Sundays.
Also, my cat is black.

[3rdragon]

Oh, thanks for clearing that upl