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- "Mit csinálsz te?"
34 Comments
I think this should be "MIt csinálsz?" or "Mit csinálsz most?"
"Mit csinálsz te?" is what you typically say to a child when they're doing something wrong, like drawing on the walls. :)
It's rather interesting how the word "csináls" resembles the dialectic and archaic verb form in the 2nd p. Sng. Pres. „чиниш“ /'tʃɪnɪʃ/. Makes you wonder about etymology.
The stems are probably related, not the conjugation though. "Csinálsz" and "Sétálsz" respectively.
Mi is the nominative case, while mit is the accusative case. The reason you use the accusative case is because we're talking about the object of "doing," which is represented by "what," hence "mit".
243
Mit te csinálsz? - What are /you/ doing?
Mit csinálsz te? - /What/ are you doing? or You are doing /what/?
I believe
- 735
No, that doesn't work. "Mi te csinálsz?" is not a valid sentence.
Mi is nominative case, so it would be the subject, like in "Mi folyik?" - "What is going on?" The "what" is doing the thing. But in the original sentence, you are doing the thing to the "what", so in needs to be in accusative case and get a -t suffix.
- 735
Okay, good. But I have to point out another thing, then. :´)
"Mit te csinálsz?" still doesn't work. The question word (or phrase) always has to be in focus, i.e. right in front of the verb stem. The only valid word orders you can have here are
- Mit csinálsz? - What are you doing?
- Mit csinálsz te? - What are you doing?
- Te mit csinálsz? - You, what are you doing?
- 735
No, "Csinálsz mit?" isn't valid either. The phrase "mit csinálsz" really has to stay like this.
I am also not sure why you want to emphasise the action here. Okay, maybe to contrast it with "What are you cooking?" or so. In any case, you can just vocally emphasise the verb: "Mit csinálsz?"
I didn't exactly know where to ask this so I'll just ask this here: one of the sentences I've come across were the sentences "egy lány van itt" and "a szék mindig itt van". According to my Hungarian mother "a szék mindig van itt" is wrong, but why is "egy lány van itt" correct? What exactly is the rule behind this? I'm sorry if this is explained later on, but I've just been wondering
A szék mindig van itt. is indeed incorrect and Egy lány van itt. is correct
It is because of the word mindig. This word and a few more has a compulsory word order
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Mindig itt van.
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Néha itt van
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Állandóan itt van
but
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Ritkán van itt.
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Soha sincs itt.
So, A lány van itt. becomes A lány mindig itt van.
A szék van itt. will be A szék mindig itt van.
My hungarian frend told me that they say "te mit csináls?" rather than "mit csináls te?". Is it everywhere like that or what?
Both are correct. In the first case, the stress is on the person, the second case want to know about the action more.
- 735
Es, the only difference with the form "Mit csinálsz?" is that there is no emphasis on the person. The action is put in the foreground here.
"Mit csinál ma" would mean "What are you/he/she/it do today?" Csinál can be a formal second person singular conjugation, as well as the third person singular conjugation. Csinálsz is the second person singular, informal version.
