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- "Инженеры тоже любят мечтать."
59 Comments
1631
Well, it's kind of difficult to come up with an English verb (or verb + adjective) which effectively translates мечтать, when no indication is given as to how it differs from "to dream" or "to day-dream". Some possibilities:
Free-associate
Ponder
Cerebrate
Ruminate
Imagine (freely, fancifully)
Wander mentally through
In many instances, the meaning would be fleshed out by a phrase or clause, or even a full sentence describing what it is the engineer fancies in his imagination, lets bubble up from the depths of his structured imagination, juxtaposes illogical connections that defy the laws of physics, etc.
I do not understand why "Engineers also love to dream" is so bad a translation that it must be rejected. This is a RUSSIAN course, and also in other languages it is not uncommon to use "aimer", "lieben" etc. in the sense of "to like (very much)"! In German, e.g., I can say "Ich liebe es zu träumen".
1962
They love to dream - Они любят мечтать;
Engineers love to dream - Инженеры любят мечтать.
1854
Likewise. Engineers love to dream is more idiomatic in English than like to dream, although both are used.
I would say the former. For the latter meaning, I would use something like «А ещё инжене́ры лю́бят мечта́ть».
I used to have lots of problems with the difference between тоже and также. My teacher, if I remember this correctly, explained that,
тоже is used, like you say, when the action is comparable to somebody else's action.
также is used when the subject is doing something in addition to or on top of their original action.
If I didn't understand that correctly at the time, please let me know.
Кстати... The question didn't seem to like the informal variant 'as well' (reported).
510
Having spent years getting them muddled, I've settled on pausing & thinking:
"Is this like a taxi driver driving his taxi and doing something else too?"
Yes = taxi = также
the alternatives being тоже or ещё...
We generally use it with the prepositions:
- о + Prepositional (more formal),
- про + Accusative (more colloquial).
So, «Я люблю мечта́ть о мо́ре» and «Я люблю́ мечта́ть про мо́ре» both mean 'I like (day)dreaming about the sea'.
Or it can be used with infinitive: «Я мечта́ю пое́хать на мо́ре» 'I dream about going to the sea'.
Note that Russian «мечта́ть» never means 'to see something while sleeping', it only refers to day-dreaming. Also, it often just means 'to want, to desire' (without the reference to phantasising about something). So, «Я мечта́ю пое́хать на мо́ре» doesn't neccessarily mean you're imagining your holidays. It can just mean you want to have those holidays.
No, «о» is definitely neither very formal nor old-fashioned! It's just a bit more formal (so, for example, it's the variant preferred in all kinds of official documents), but it's used in everyday speech too. I think the difference is comparable to «здесь» and «тут».
In fact, I remember some Russian speakers here on Duolingo saying they use «о» much more often than «про», so this might be a regional difference.
They are pronounced in the same way, /'lʲubʲɪt/. However, since «инжене́ры» is a plural noun, «лю́бят» is the only possible option here.
1278
so English wise, if I said (engineers also love to dream) - what's the problem here?
If (like) is a must then probably нравятся should be used instead
2294
Yep, same here. I always translate love <-> 'любить' и like <-> 'нравиться'. Most native English speakers I discussed the topic with, confirm that it's absolutely possible to use 'love' with inanimate objects and I don't understand the persistence of the course creators / admins in rejecting this.