25 Comments
They are not well should be accepted as this sentence is not gender specific (just like any other word in Hungarian) therefore it isn't limited to 'He is not well'
"she is not well" is acceptable too, or should be at least. "it is not well" as well.
They are not well is not good, because it means "Ők nincsenek jól." So if you want "Nincs jól" in English, than you need "She(or he) is not well.
They're talking about how the word "they" can be either plural or singular in English. If the sex of a person is indeterminate, you can usually say they in place, so "They are not well" can refer to just one person. I'd say it's more appropriate of a translation of nincs than using "he".
[2019/04/15]
What do you mean? Instead of saying "nem van" (i.e. "is not"), we say "nincs". Was your confusion about this?
Confusion because it was not in any previous lesson explaining this. It just showed up and we were supposed to magically know this.
• (Én) nem vagyok. - (I) am not • (Te) nem vagy. • (Ő) nincs (unregular) • (Mi) nem vagyunk. • (Ti) nem vagytok. • (Ők) nincsenek. (unregular)
How do we know is a "she"? Isn't here a verb-lacking (as I read is possible for the 3-rd person) phrase here?
In English one should use "he" as the generic when one does not know the gender. Example: "When a customer comes in to our café, he may order coffee.". However, in this language course it would be useful to write "He (she) is not well". As a suggestion, since we have not seen "nincs" prior to this lesson it would help to have a new word list to learn prior to the lessons.
Why not just say "When a customer comes into our café, they may order coffee"? There doesn't need to be any indication of sex.
[2019/04/15]
No, I think you should report it as a good answer, but from what I read in the Tips & Notes section, reporting is discouraged for this part (but not for the rest of the course!).
That would more likely be "Semmi jó". Notice how jól is an adverb.
[2019/04/16]
