"Let me send you a message."
Translation:Mi sendu mesaĝon al vi.
36 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The English translation here is wrong. It should be more like 'I shall send you a message!'
The current translation makes it look like the speaker is asking permission.
It is better just to remember the "mi …u" is the translation of "Let me …".
No, that phrase can be read as a request for permission (as the original comment says), and that meaning can't be translated as "mi ...u"
I would argue that any ordinary reading of "Let me send you a message" would be along the lines of "I'm going to send you a message - brace yourself - here it comes". I would consider "give me permission to send a message" to be a contrived meaning.
I would advise people who disagree to take a step back and remember what we're supposed to be doing here - learning Esperanto. If you've taken the time to read this comment, then you've come far enough to understand that the point of the exercise is to express the idea "Mi X-u" and not "permesu al mi X-i."
In other words - I think I agree with Revilo_N here.
657
It is not contrived. The sentence is awkward without external context.
I've never heard the phrase "let me..." used this way in English, and I'm a native speaker.
I'll have to give Salivanto this one (saluton Tomaso) it may be different around different sides of the country but here in the Midwest we use it that way all the time. "Let me get that door for you", "Let me just take this call real quick"
Saluton. By the way, I found this notification only because I was seaching my unread notifications for "Tomaso" -- searching for "Salivanto" doesn't help because that word shows up in all my notifications whether someone is addressing me specifically or not.
I agree with KnottyLinguist that at least here in the Midwest, "Let me send you __" means "I am about to send you ___", with the possible subtext of "(... unless you object.)". "Let me ..." with any verb is just stating an intention to do something, and making the listener aware so that they are not caught off guard by your action.
I just got it wrong because "Permit me to send you a message" was my first instinct with it. shrug I don't think it's contrived.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "permit me". When you say that, do you literally expect the person to say "I grant you permission to send me email" (or some equivalent?) That's not what your English sentence means to me.
I would probably wait for "Sure, go ahead" before sending the message.
Must be the stereotypical Canadian politeness. :-)
I guess when I use a phrase like "Let me help you" in English, it mentally ends in a question mark rather than a period, making it more like "may I". I do wait the person to say, "Yes, thanks" or "No, I'm fine" before jumping in with the offered help. In the example sentence, I would probably wait for "Sure, go ahead" before sending the message.
What part of the Esperanto sentence corresponds to "let" in the English sentence?
I would say that statements like this better coincide with English's other imperative, "I will send you a letter!" Although, in English, this tends to have a forceful connotation, and I'm not sure if it's the same in Esperanto.
In English, "Let" means "Allow" in common usage, except for referencing the inclusive group ("Let us sing" when addressing "us", i.e. "Let's"). This sentence is awkward.
I attempted to convey the concept of "allow" by translation it as "Rajtu min sendi al vin mesaĝon." Although I am not sure if this is grammatically correct.
I think it should be "raitigu min..." (give me the right to...), since rajti is intransitive.
I think "mi rajtu sendi" would also work, "let me be allowed to send," but the original version ("mi sendu") is fine, and certainly better than these options in an ordinary situation.
It's totally normal for me to say to someone, "Do you have that document? Let me send it to you." I'm not asking permission, I'm saying that I'm going to do it. Although I could also say "allow me to send it to you," but it would sound more formal.
You could also say "Permit me to introduce you to my sister, whom we are must to marry off so we can use the endowment to pay our extravagant bills."
Imagine you are in a store and find an elderly person trying to reach for something beyond their grasp. You might saw "Let me help you with that", or "I'll help you with that" or "Allow me to help you with that". To my ear, they all convey exactly the same thing, a mildly polite way to let someone know you are going to help them, without asking for their explicit permission. As opposed to "I am going to help you with that", which is a little rude and abrupt, or "Would you allow me to help you with that?", which is more formal. I think the discussion of this sentence's meaning has mostly to do with tone. The DL translators seem to be saying that the tone of "Mi sendu..." is equivalent to the polite but informal tone conveyed by English "Let me...".
Commanding them to let you send them a message seems a little odd. Is it like "let me get back to you later"? What you'd command someone to do is read, watch, or listen to your message and respond to it.
Yes, It's not the "allow me" kind of let me. It's the casual "let me go do my Duolingo lesson real quick."
- 73
se vi volas diri tion, mi opinias ke vi devas aldoni « ke » : « Permisu ke mi sendas mesaĝon al vi. »
Pro manko de klarigo post tri jaroj mi aldonas tiun etan klarigon. Post tri jaroj mi esperas ke Rory trovis la solvon. Danielqsc diris la veron.
"Lasu min sendi al vi mesaĝon" estas ja ĝuste.
Vi bezonas uzi "al" por ke ĝi estus tiel. Unue mi maltrafis tiel kaj tial mi esploras ĝin. La dua fojo mi aldonis la "al" kaj ĝi funcias.
Eble la eraro estas "...sendi vin mesaĝo". La ĝusta respondo estas "...sendi al vi mesaĝon".
- 15
What is the function of a 1st person singular imperative (-u form). I don't think it can be a request.
You use -u when there's pressure to do something. This includes imperatives, but this doesn't mean that everything that ends in a -u is an imperative.
