"A kutyák a házak előtt állnak és ugatnak."
Translation:The dogs are standing and barking in front of the houses.
11 Comments
I think "The dogs are standing in front of the houses and are barking" is a correct translation as well
44
Thank you for your encouraging words, RyagonIV! I am not going to lose faith, or at least I am not going to stop learning Hungarian. I shall probably never succeed, but I won't give up. It is really the most fascinating language - it is very logical, but you have to think of every single element at once. Nothing except practice can help - I finished Bánhidi's textbook, but still couldn't start using the language. That's why Duolingo is so useful. One should really learn Hungarian as a child, but the last one in my family who spoke Hungarian was my Hungarian great-grandmother, so I never got to learn it. The other day I found a quotation from a Brazilian author's book: "Hungarian is the only language that the devil respects", and I thought "no wonder, since he invented it". I also immediately bought that book, "Budapeste" by Chico Buarque - I am always looking for something Portuguese to read anyway.
Is "The dogs in front of the houses are standing and barking" also a correct translation? If not, how would that be rendered in Hungarian?
- 56
No, your suggested sentence is different from the DL sentence. Yours means 'The dogs that are in front of the houses ...'; and that would be translated into Hungarian using a relative clause introduced by 'amelyik', I believe. My attempts:
- A kutyák állnak és ugatnak amelyik a házak előtt van.
- A kutyäk, amelyik a házak előtt van, állnak és ugatnak.
- 222
Close enough. :)
- Azok a kutyák állnak és ugatnak, amelyek a házak előtt vannak.
- A kutyák, amelyek a házak előtt vannak, állnak és ugatnak.
- A házak előtti kutyák állnak és ugatnak. ("the in-front-of-houses dogs")
But yes, English speakers have to be careful when they include a hidden clause, because Hungarian cannot really do that.
EDIT: Hooray for learning!
"The dogs in front of the houses" is also a possible, vaild interpretation of "a kutyák a házak előtt", so piguy3's sentence is acceptable. But the focus pressure from the verbs is tugging a bit on it, making this interpretation not come out well in text form.
- 44
"The dogs are standing in front of the houses and barking" was my translation and it was not accepted. After that, I have a hard time to take these corrections seriously.
- 222
The course is still in beta mode (and to be frank, the course creators have made it quite difficult for themselves with sentences that have so many moving pieces). Don't lose faith and keep reporting the sentences that aren't accepted yet.
