"Czekanie na pociąg to nie podróżowanie."
Translation:Waiting for a train is not traveling.
32 Comments
I though actually it was a quote or something. Or maybe that it had some philosophical meaning like if you want to do something, do it, waiting is not doing. Now that I've read the comments I see it's just a sentence, so it's a little bit disappointing)
A sentence that uses two nouns derived from verbs.
It is not a "meaningful sentence". I can imagine some person saying - we spent 10 hours traveling here, and other saying well only two, the rest was waiting for a train, and that is not traveling.
Wouldn't the Polish for that be "... na pociągi..." which is slightly different?
Yeah, that can be rendered easily by using "pociągi". Sure, it's very close, but different.
119
It's not very natural. Your construction is using a false subject "it" to postpone the real subject "waiting for a train". We do this sometimes, for example when the subject is an infinitive - "It's not nice to be kept waiting", but the natural position for a gerund subject ("waiting ...") is in normal subject position, at the beginning of the sentence.
Unless it means that you are on the train and wait for something - and I understand it does not - then it seems correct, added.
Presumably "waiting on <somebody>", as a wait-person in a restaurant would do, is a totally different verb?
'wait-person', really? Come on ;)
Yes, a different one. But I'm not exactly sure which one. "obsługiwać", maybe?
Exactly; hence also "mail carriers" rather than "mail man/woman" (the latter sounds a bit confusing anyway).
Yes, really!! Fairly common US usage... I've also encountered, admittedly rather less often, "waitron".
I have to say I've never heard either... And I'm not especially sad about that. :D
As far as I know, "to wait on" can be synonymous with "to wait for", although it's very surprising to me.
Yes; "wait on" is synonymous to "wait for" . Used more in the North of England.
- 266
It's most often used for something which is causing a delay, such as "I'm waiting on a delivery" or "We are still waiting on the paperwork".
(But yes, it can mean waiting for anybody or anything, especially in Northern England)
- 565
Could someone explain when and why "to" is used instead of "jest" (both meaning "is")?
Check here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16373167
It's a detailed introduction to the problem.
Maybe "waiting for a train that is not travelling" would be better?
From the point of view of grammar, that is not a sentence... you could probably use a dash between them and write "Waiting for a train - that is not travelling", but we can't accept it.
That's close, but still "a journey" is a noun that translates to "podróż", not the gerund form "podróżowanie".
It has a perfect meaning, knowing reality in Poland... Plus, the sentence is grammatically correct, so deal with it.
