25 Comments
974
Americans don't say "going to the theater," or "to the cinema." We would say "going to the movies," or maybe "going to the movie theater." I'm located in the northeast of the US. I agree that theater should be "teatr," and cinema should be "kino."
- 1659
In the same vein, kino should accept cinema or movie theater. I agree that theater, without movie, strongly implies live performance, and maybe isn't a good fit for kino
Why is theater not an acceptable translate for kino. American will say "going to the theater at least as often as going to the cinema?
Theater is "Teatr". I know I just got done sowing some salt about how some dialects aren't more or less valid than others, but that being said, this is also a language in which Theater and Cinema are two different words.
"The cinema is near the avenue". Why is that wrong? Must it be another word like 'blisko'?
Yeah, 'near' can be, let's say, 600 metres, which is a little bit too far for 'obok' = '(right) next to'. 'Blisko' would work then.
Dziękuję for the explanation Jellei. "near" currently appears as one of the possible translations for "obok" when you hover your mouse over it. That should probably be removed.
= ale.... #coś jest obok alei#... To bardzo dziwna konstrukcja po polsku.
aleja = avenue, ulica = street, droga = road.
A street is supposed to be in a city (buildings on both sides, usually), a road not necessarily. That's how I understand it.
An alley and an avenue are quite different in English. Does "Aleja" really mean both?
Weird, I was sure that "alley" is not accepted. I remember explaining it somewhere else. Well, thanks to your comment at least I removed "alley" now.
So "aleja" = "an avenue", however its diminutive "alejka" is actually "an alley". One letter changes that much.
Well, you didn't quite fix it everywhere: https://www.dropbox.com/s/giyr6caxqf6gc8f/AvenueOrAlley.png?dl=0
Changed now. Thanks for the hint. The pictures may not be perfect for "an avenue", but that's the best we can do, we cannot add our own.
- 1588
I am confused because aleja is also defined in the dictionary as an alley.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aleja#Polish
https://www.wordreference.com/plen/aleja
What does this sentence actually mean? Is this an Americanism that I don't understand. In English a building is 'on' or 'in' a street. The cinema could be next to a bank or a restaurant but not next to a road or avenue. I am confused and I'm finding American very difficult to understand.
I would interpret this as meaning that the cinema is on a corner where the avenue runs by. But, you're right; to me at least it's not really a 'natural' sentence, in Brit. Eng. Not sure if it works in the U.S.
This is not an Americanism. If someone were to say this to me, I would respond "What do you mean?" Do you mean that it is on a street that is near the avenue ? Is it on a street that crosses the avenue ? There would need to be some discussion.
Maybe someone can clarify exactly what the Polish sentence is trying to convey.
I will remove this sentence and substitute it with 'blisko alei' = 'close to the avenue'. Yeah, in Polish it also sounds off.
To be honest, I'm not really sure that that is really much better. "Close to the junction / intersection / corner with/of the alley" makes a bit more sense (but I don't think we done the first two of those options yet).
I reckon it makes sense, assuming you're standing on the right street! someone says 'i'ts close to the avenue'; it's definitely better than what went before.
