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- "Это прекрасный и тихий сад."
32 Comments
That would be этот прекрасный и тихий сад and then you'd need to add something to it to finish the sentence out in Russian because there's no predicate there.
We might need the adjective "этот/etot" here. I'm not sure, though, and hope someone can confirm this (I made the same mistake, by the way).
my "splendid' was marked wrong and replaced by "spectacular". These inconsistencies keep appearing !!
«Красивый» is 'beautiful', it refers to aesthetics. «Прекрасный» means it's very good, but not neccessarily because it's beautiful. For example, «она́ прекра́сная программи́стка» 'she is a wonderful programmer' means she is a very good programmer, and «краси́вая» wouldn't work in this context.
Well, that explains why a Russian friend of mine use the word "beautiful" in weird situations
Not even as a compliment? Meaning, she is a beautiful programmer, on behalf of her looks.
And could I use "красивы" to describe the personality of someone? Like "Tom Hanks is a beautiful person" in the sense that he is really kind.
Weird questions, haha, sorry.
Not even as a compliment? Meaning, she is a beautiful programmer, on behalf of her looks.
No, «прекрасная программистка» would mean she writes code well, it can't mean she's beatuful. But I think this is also a compliment, isn't it? I mean, I think when someone compliments a person's work, it's as much a compliment as when they compliment someone's looks, isn't it?
«Она красивая программистка» could mean she's a beautiful programmer, but in Russian this sentence sounds pretty strange because Russian prefers not to pack different messages into one sentence. It's better to say «Она программистка, и она красивая» 'She's a programmer, and she's beautiful'.
And could I use "красивы" to describe the personality of someone? Like "Tom Hanks is a beautiful person" in the sense that he is really kind.
Oh well... Techically it could mean this, but this is bound to be misunderstood. Unless you have a context where it's obvious. E.g. you've discussed how appearance is not important for you before, and now you say «Том Хэнкс — красивый человек», then it could be understood to refer to inner beauty.
But if you just say «Том Хэнкс — красивый человек», without any context, it would be understood as a sentence about appearance ('Ton Hanks is a handsome person.').
You could add more words to clarify you're not talking about appearance, e.g. «красивый душой человек» 'a person beautiful in soul', «красивый внутренне человек» 'internally beautiful person', etc.
"Russian prefers not to pack different messages into one sentence." was a really useful advice! Большое спасибо!!
392
I think exercises like this should accept translations without "and", because although it is standard in Russian, we do not use "and" when listing adjectives in English. They are always separated with a comma instead.
- 288
Not always but normally. A comma separation in the example sentence is certainly not wrong, though I see I've received down votes for pointing this out a year ago.
- 392
Ah, you're right. I forgot about cumulative adjectives. As for using "and" vs. using commas (in coordinate adjective lists), while it is grammatically possible to use "and", I don't think any native English speaker ever would.
Could someone please explain how to determine "It is" vs "This is" for this sentence? Thanks!
You should be able to say It is A... garden and This is A... garden. In those structures, "it" and "this" become the subjects in the English sentence but both are translated as Это in the Russian.
Hm... I used the word "pretty" instead of "splendid" and got it wrong. That seems objectionable, unless there is some way for a Russian speaker to be sure in this case that "прекрасный" does not refer to aesthetics.
i wrote "it is a lovely and quiet garden" and got marked wrong. isn't прекрасный also translated as "lovely"?
"It's a beautiful, quiet garden" wasn't accepted. Both the adjective "splendid" and the use of "and" in place of the comma feel unnatural in my dialect of English.
May I suggest that "fine" is also a good translation for прекрасный in this and many other cases?
In my opinion "lovely" should just go fine in the meaning of прекрасный and also "wonderful"
- 338
This is another case where the male voice drops to a whisper for whatever reason at the end making it hard to distinguish for the slow version. The normal speed version - that sounds like a normal cadence.
'This garden is splendid and quiet' - why is that not accepted as an English translation?
- 412
Is there one English speaker who uses "splendid" in this context? "Spendid" is almost never used in American English.
The word 'splendid' has not entirely fallen out of use in American English. As a native speaker, I use it and hear it used occasionally - and not in a contrived way, but as part of natural speech. It's not the most commonly used word nor the rarest. Splendid could certainly be used to describe a garden - but a grand one (великолепный сад). 'A lovely (or fine) and quiet garden' would be a good translation of прекрасный и тихий сад.
