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- "Are there any men here?"
"Are there any men here?"
Translation:Здесь есть мужчины?
37 Comments
The hints are completely useless here and the English word 'any' very misleading.
238
I don't understand why "мужчины здесь ?" isn't accepted... Could someone explain it to me ? :)
107
I think мужчины здесь? means Are the men here? - at least this is how Duo translates тарелки здесь? (Are the plates here?).
104
In the absence of comprehensive explanation i imagine it would be fine in normal conversation, should you need to ask that strange question, but i think the programmers couldn't put all the varied response people might give and the linguists maybe wanted us to explore different ways to say that.
878
Yes — please could we have some explanation of why this (and other alternative word orders) aren’t right?
In English, we denote emphasis with intonation (cause our word order is fixed). In Russian, we denote emphasis with word order.
New information usually is placed at the end of a sentence, because that’s where you should put the emphasis. So, both «здесь есть мужчины?» and «есть здесь мужчины?» are fine, but «есть мужчины здесь?» is more like “Are there men HERE?” (like a place where you wouldn’t expect in, maybe a women’s bathroom or an all-girls’ boarding school, idk).
I believe «есть мужчины здесь?» is grammatically correct, but it’s probably not what you mean.
1711
Google translate gave slightly different translations:
здесь есть мужчины? "Are there any men here?"
The English is uncertain as to the presence of one or more men, suspecting there are none, and wanting to know if there is at least one man present. There is a positive nuance to this form, seeking to discover the presence of the man/men.
In an adolescent version for example, a group of teenage girls goes to a party and all they see is other girls. So they ask, "Are there any boys here?" If told, no boys, they leave to go find a party where there are boys. If told, yes there are boys, they ask, "Where are they, we want to meet them."
есть здесь мужчины? "Are there men here?"
The English suspects that there is at least one man present, but is uncertain, and thus wants to verify whether there is at least one man is present in the locale. There is a negative nuance to this form; which seeks to discover the presence of a men/some men who should not be here.
Adolescent version: Some girls go to a slumber-party to which no boys are invited. Their parents have forbidden them to be there is boys are present. When they arrive, they notice a car that belongs to one of the boys at their high-school, so they ask, "Are there boys here?" If told no, they enter the party. If told yes, they leave.
I'm not sure if the same difference applies to the Russian.
1711
Duo requires есть here. After trying several different forms of the Russian, it seems that Duo only accepts Здесь есть мужчины? as an answer.
I tried Здесь мужчины? and it was rejected 26 Apr 2018.
734
Why would be "мужчины здесь" refused? I'm very confused with all those subtles differences going on