18 Comments
The translation "Better sleep at home" carries a suggestive meaning as in "it would be better for you if you were to sleep at home". Is this what the Russian sentence "лучше спать дома" also conveys? And in that case is the translation "sleeping at home is better" not accurate?
Yes, you are correct. The Russian sentence does not carry an imperative meaning, at least not without a specific context. So the best translations would indeed be "sleeping at home is better" or "it's better to sleep at home".
In that case that answer should probably be added because I had that and it was marked incorrect. Thanks for your answer
13
It's grammatically incorrect (at least in American English). You could say: It is better to sleep at home OR You had better sleep at home. OR It would be better if you slept at home. (or ... if you were to sleep at home). I reported it.
I feel this carries the same assumed understanding as the very common, "Better safe than sorry." As an English speaker, I know it means, "It is better to be safe than to be sorry," as a sentence, but we just know what it means. It's a 'sentence' I've heard quite a lot.
I wrote "it is better to sleep at home" and was marked wrong. Is this not am acceptable translation?
How can one distinguish "[It is] better to sleep at home" from "Better than sleeping at home"?
Thanks. I was curious, because the tip gave both 'better' and 'better than' for лучше. And so I was unsure which to read it as. Is that hint wrong?
These hints are designed to cover a variety of possible contexts, but "better than" doesn't fit into this particular sentence, even though it could fit in a more detailed version:
Лучше спать дома = [it's] better [to] sleep at home
Лучше спать дома, чем на улице = better sleep at home than outside (or literally "in a street")
The default english translation has a slight feel of an imperative sentence, while in fact the original russian sentence isn't imperative at all, neither it says anything about "who" (had better sleep at home).
In this particular case russain sentence is built like it's better in general so the most complete and correct translation would be "it's better to sleep at home".
