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- "The bus is not in the front …
"The bus is not in the front but in the back."
Translation:A busz nem elöl van, hanem hátul.
32 Comments
"Van" in this case doesn't just describe something, it refers to physically being somewhere.
No, because the negated part is "elöl" and therefore "nem" needs to stand before that. "Nincs" is a replacement for "nem van" only if there is nothing inbetween.
Nincs can also be used.
'A busz nincs elöl, hanem hátul (van).'
Other examples:
'Elöl nincs busz, de hátul van.'
'Elöl nincs busz, csak hátul.'
No. "hanem" = "sondern" in German. "Pedig" doesn't have a meaning that fits here.
Apparently, Spanish sino is similar to German sondern and Hungarian hanem.
In English, the closest is probably "but rather" or "but instead" - sometimes we just use "but", but(!) that word also has other meanings so it may be confusing to learn simply "hanem = but".
hanem implies a contrast -- "not A, but (rather/instead) B".
'Pedig' is used to make comparison between two or more listed things = Something is...A, 'and what concerns to' an other thing is B; or Something is.. A, an other thing is B, ..., 'and what concerns to' the last thing it is Z Pl.: Az autó piros, a bicikli pedig fekete. The car is red, and what concerns the bike it is black. Az autó piros, a bicikli fekete, a roller pedig rózsaszín. The car is red, the bike it is black, and what concerns the roller it is pink.
'Hanem' is used to make a contrast to a negative sentence = ..not A.., but (rather).. B Pl.: Az autó nem piros, hanem kék. The car is not red, but (rather) blue.
"Meg" has like 3 roles at the very least but I cannot see how any of them would be suitable here. It can be used as a contrasting "and" (then it's interchangable with "pedig"), as "plus" and as a verbal prefix mostly used for creating so-called telic verbs, I think you will see all of them eventually.
Contrasting: "The car is fast and/while/whereas the bus is slow." Both clauses follow the same structure. "Az autó gyors, a busz meg/pedig lassú."
"Correcting": "The car isn't slow but/{it is} fast" We barely have two clauses, we have a wrong detail that we negate and then propose the right detail. "Az autó nem lassú, hanem gyors."
Előtt is rather 'in front of sg.' or before sg. like an event or point in time. Elöl is just general 'in the front'.
I normally put the "elöl" before the van but a couple exercises ago I was marked wrong and told to put it after the "van." Is there a rule?
There kinda is. Whatever detail is making the difference in the sentence, it should directly precede the verb (unless the given action itself is the crucial new information, of course it can't precede itself :D) Here in this example, we are talking about a bus (the first words make the topic - the shared knowledge that will be further discussed) and the important detail is its location. That's why the location-related information is the one preceding the verb. It's a natural assumption that "Something is somewhere" sentences have somewhere as new information. You can express, though, that it's that something which is at the given place - and not something else. A busz van elöl, nem a kamion. (Note that if something is negated, you can be sure it's the detail making the difference and therefore it should be focused - who would say "It is the bus that is not in front? Like, why don't you wanna say where it actually is if it's just a neutral detail?)
Using "de" sounds fairly off here, to me it sounds archaic at the very best. In "not X but (rather/...instead) Y" situations, "hanem" is the way to go - ~"sondern", if you're studying German.
This isn't the first occasion someone asks this (moreover, it has been explained here, just take a look around). By the way, at this point I'd like to ask you what lead you into thinking "pedig" would be good for "but"? If we knew the exact reason, maybe we could do some prevention. I checked hints but it wasn't that...
(By the way, "pedig" has a meaning that's not really taught here - a "despite of the fact..." sense. "Dolgozom, pedig vasárnap van." - "I'm working, even though/despite the fact that it's sunday." The second clause implies the first clause shouldn't be true.)
Please explain the meaning of "meg", "pedig" and "hanem" . What is the difference between these words. Thanks
So. In the first place, you generally can't use "nem van". This is the only verb that has distinct negative forms, for van and vannak namely. "nem van" → "nincs(en)", "nem vannak" → "nincsenek". As a standalone sentence, "A busz nincs elöl." would be okay, simply negating the statement "A busz elöl van"
The other thing is, here we have a "correction of information", or how to put it. You spot the wrong piece of information and correct it. This means the wrong piece of information (as well as the corrected one) must be the focus of the sentence. In Hungarian, you put this part right before the verb, hence "nem elöl van", elöl being the wrong piece of information.
