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- "Ваш сын цел?"
44 Comments
"Is your son intact" is given as a correct solution - is this really correct English?
2119
If someone asked me: "Is your son intact?" It is such an odd phrasing, that I would interpret it as meaning "Has your son been circumcised?"
- 196
If someone asked me that I would panic and want to know why on earth my son WOULDN'T be intact. What has happened to him that he might not be intact? A car accident? A bear mauling? That phrasing brought to mind some sort of violence so severe it might be expected you might not make it out in one piece.
Is it correct - yes, there's nothing wrong grammatically. Is it normal - no. I might say it but I say all sorts of random abnormal things. I've never heard anyone else say this. It shouldn't be a suggested translation, I'm not even sure it should be accepted.
Grammatically, of course it's correct. What I should written is, "is this really how it would be normally expressed in English". I get where "intact" is coming from, but in this case "unharmed" would sound better since it's referring to a person.
I agree with these comments. In English, objects can survive intact, but people never do - they survive unharmed, or in one piece.
Doesn't sound too strange to me, given a context of some accident. Although "in one piece" is what I would personally use instead of "intact".
Most people would more likely say "in one piece", "intact" still sounds a bit odd but it does make more sense in that context.
- 636
I would probably say alright instead of intact. Maybe safe. Intact sounds a bit odd to me.
Is alright your son - с вашим сыном все в порядке or выш сын в порядке. По-русски более адекватный перевод.
@Metelona What does that have to do with anything? In addition you made a mistake. The expression is "Is your son alright?" Period. By the way some people dislike alright and regard it as incorrect, so it’s best to avoid using 'alright' in educational courses.
I come from a farm background, and "intact" in reference to a male means that there has been no castration. A bull is "intact" while a steer is not. Nothing whatever to do with "okay" or "unhurt." Really bad sentence in the English version.
I am surprised by the word цел ... who would ask for a son like that. I doubt that in Russian that is a common question.
It's common enough. Just don't take it too literally. It's a figurative expression that indicates worry about someone who had just had an accident and might be in need of medical assistance.
I typed Is your son hurt and it was marked wrong. Цел means не пострадал, right?
"Is your son didn't get hurt" is ungrammatical in English. You could ask "did your son get hurt" but that's not quite the same as the Russian sentence, I think. The best translation is probably the one suggested above - "Is your son alright?"
At least in the US you can also ask "Is your son hurt?" (using "hurt" as an adjective). But I agree, it is not quite the same as the Russian sentence.
I'm surprised I haven't seen more comments about "alright" being used in this translation. I'm a native English speaker in the US, and it was drilled into me in school that it was "all right", not "alright".
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/alright?q=alright
Informal, but not necessarily wrong. It probably shouldn't be used in writing - but Duo is a hardly a purveyor of formal writing style.
- 961
I used "OK" and it was marked correct. Do Russians say "OK" or do they have their own word? I'm asking because in Spanish we also use "OK"
We can use OK as a replacement for good (хорошо)
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Ok я понял - Ok, I understood.
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Скажи когда будешь готов ок? - Tell me when you're ready, ok?
In this case it sounds odd. You can say Ваш сын в порядке.
- 961
Thanks! For me it sounds normal in English to ask "Is your son ok?", but I guess it doesn't sound natural in Russian
NB - neither alright or alwrong are good English words. Please use all right or something else. Never alright.
Here's my mnemonic for цел: Recall the film Marathon Man where the character "Szell" asks "is it safe?"
As I have already written in response to another comment in this formum, цел" does not mean safe. It literally means either "in one piece" or "intact" - choose the one that fits the context.
"Цел" is a short form of "целый" - an adjective meaning "whole" or "intact".
"Safe" (adjective) in Russian is either "безопасный" (if you describe someone or something that does not pose danger to you: this car is safe) or "в безопасности" (if you describe the state of not being in danger: I am safe here).
Is this only used in circumstances where injury is a possibility (e.g. the son is a soldier, or there has been an accident)?
Or can it be used as a more general expression of concern?
e.g. "Is your son alright? He seems a bit tense."
Yes, it used in circumstances where injury is possible. Not in "Is your son alright? He seems a bit tense."
- 548
The alternative suggestion was "alright" which is not a word. It should be "all right." I don't care how maby examples you can find: it's still wrong
"Is your son well" was rejected. Since we wouldn't say "Is your son intact" in english this seems like one where there should be emphasis on the meaning rather than a direct translation.
