"The children are not wearing skirts, but pants."
Translation:A gyerekeken nem szoknya van, hanem nadrág.
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If you mean you miss this:
- A gyerekeken nem szoknyák vannak, hanem nadrágok.
This sounds awkward. The grammar is correct in the sentence, but if I picture it, I can see a boy wearing three trousers.
We go with the singular.
234
Yes, that seems to be a universal rule in Hungarian: when in doubt, go with the singular! Except for "a három királyok", of course. There are always exceptions.
A gyerekek nem szoknyában VANNAK, hanem nadrágban works. Once we're talking about the children being in something it's the children who take van and it becomes vannak.
Only 3 days and I had forgotten my own comment!! Once again I wrote a gyerekek nem szoknyában VAN, hanem nadrágban and of course, I fell over. Once it's the children being IN something we have gyerekek so we must have vannak. As soon as you do it the other way around and put the clothes ON the children, (in much the way of putting something on a table), you're referring to the item of clothing which is singular and takes van.
- 234
The way I learnt it "a gyerekeken nem szoknya, hanem nadrág van" is correct. Here you negate the subject (szoknya), not the verb.
- 234
It's the way Hungarian translates "to wear": literally "on the children is not skirt but trousers". That is, "valakin van valami" means "someone is wearing something".
