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- "A young athlete is standing …
"A young athlete is standing there, not the referee."
Translation:Egy fiatal sportoló áll ott, nem a bíró.
18 Comments
But Why now the location "ott" is after the verb? ain't usually the verb the last word?
1058
See the answers above—that would change the subtle details in meaning. While Hungarian has a free word order, it is not that free. Changing the word order changes the importance of the words, or their relations to each other. With this word order in the given solution, the sentence means that we see a person perhaps near to an event, let's say a fault. He is close enough, but he is not the referee so he is not allowed make decision. With swapping the verb and the location, "Egy fiatal sportoló ott áll, [de] nem a bíró" would loose the connection to the second half, therefore it would need the "de" to re-establish it. Moreover it would mean that there is a young athlete in our line of sight, but there is no implied event or there is no connection to any implied event. If you're looking for the referee and consider the person, this is your line. And no fault is happened, you just cannot find the referee who may get bored during the match and went home.
still don't get very well, now I know it's correct this way, but I'd probably mistake in another similar sentence.... "az új piac van ott, nem a vasútállomás." "it is the new market there, not the train station"
"az új piac ott van" "the new market is there"
that is correct? or am I missing something? thanks for reply tho
-------- nope. the piac is being compared to the vasu'ta'lloma's . piac should be immediately in front of the verb (the focus place ) to compare it to vasu'ta'lloma's . . .
Big 15 jan 20
I guess... the problem that we English speakers are having, is that there is just so much hidden contextual information in the Hungarian sentence that just doesn't exist in the English sentence.
- 459
I dont get it either because they are teaching us the verb goes last. We really dont know enough for subtle differences. Anyway I will do as usual remember the correct answer for next time it comes up so I can move on. But thanks for trying to help us Heru
------- they aren't trying to teach you that the verb goes last. they're trying to teach you that the focus (of the phrase ) must go immediately before the verb - where ever it is !
Big 15 jan 20
I still can't make it exactly: when do you say "ott áll" and when is it "áll ott"?
...when do you say "ott áll" and when is it "áll ott"?...
-------- you would say, "ott a'll " when you're answering a question about or explaining WHERE you're standing . you would say "a'll ott " when you're answering a question about or explaining WHAT you're DOing there . . .
Big 20 jul 20
What are you doing there? Standing in my ALLOTTed place. (If that helps.)
I don't think so, it sounds me unnatural. "Egy fiatal sportoló ott áll" would work alone, without the 2nd part of the sentence, but in this case it doesn't work.
-------- egy fiatal sportolo' ott a'll , but the thing in focus (in this fragment ) is the word just before the verb, "ott " . but, "nem a biro' " is comparing the judge with the athlete. so, the focus in the first part should be "sportolo' ". thus: egy sportolo' a'll (and "ott " is just by-the-way ) nem a biro' . sportolo' and biro' are the two focal points, so one or the other has to be in front of the verbs . . .
Big 15 jan 20
- 1058
This word order would refer to the location, and it would break the context with the second part of the sentence.
