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- "Are you a musician or an act…
"Are you a musician or an actor?"
Translation:Zenész vagy vagy színész?
15 Comments
The word VAGY has two meanings here
Let's start with the second one. That means OR
The first one is the conjugated form of LENNI. Present Sing, 2nd person. It goes like this:
Én vagyok Te VAGY Ő van Mi vagyunk Ti vagytok Ők vannak
I translated it "Te vagy egy zenész vagy egy színész?" but it says it's incorrect. Is it?
387
Yes. You are contrasting zenész with színész so zenész is the focus and must be before the verb. Also "egy" is incorrect in this sentence.
Hungarians don't use the indefinite article in this case as English speakers do and therefore don't literally say "I am an actor", but "I am actor" or in the third person, "he actor" and it has the same meaning as "he is an actor" has to English speakers. Hope that makes sense.
Not that I'm so far along in Hungarian myself, but I imagine one could say "Te vagy a zenész" when stressing a specific musician perhaps referred to in a previous statement or question? - but please correct me if this is wrong as I'm just thinking conceptually.
I wouldn't say it's completely incorrect to include "egy" yet in this case, it actually sounds worse with it than without it.
"Ön zenész vagy vagy színész" is called wrong. Why does using the pronoun make it wrong? Should the form of the verb be different?
- 387
Yes - 2nd person formal takes the third person form of the verb - which is of course omitted.
muzsikás may also mean someone who plays music, and szereplő also means actor.
Listed answer: "Ön egy zenész, vagy színész?", which differs from the translation above.
The intended grammar for the question is unclear...
"Zenész vagy vagy pedig színész?" should be correct, although it would only confuse learners more probably.
I'm a bit confused with the grammar. Why would it not be Zenész vagy színész vagy?
Well, it can be. In this case, the first "vagy" would mean "or" and the second would mean "you are".
