"Nincs jól."
Translation:She is not fine.
36 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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'
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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]
Thanks for your comment - it is accurate. It is more important to learn the grammar properly and translate it correctly. Translating it to "they" confuses the issue.
"she is not well" is acceptable too, or should be at least. "it is not well" as well.
I think this just refers to living things; "it" would be "nem jó" I think, but I see that your comment is from a year ago so you probably know that already.
• (Én) nem vagyok. - (I) am not • (Te) nem vagy. • (Ő) nincs (unregular) • (Mi) nem vagyunk. • (Ti) nem vagytok. • (Ők) nincsenek. (unregular)
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.
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?
pretty much the same as the difference between good and well, one is an adjective and the other is an adverb. Use cases differ a bit, good is used in situations where jó wouldn't (e.g. sounds good - jól hangzik)
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Unfortunately English native speakers sometimes mix up 'good' and 'well' and I think American English is not always identical to British English. So this could always be a bit difficult for some native English speakers as we can't even speak our own language properly!
Anyways, jó is ultimately an adjective that you can't use as a complement of a verb (there's hardly any other linking verb in Hungarian than the "van", I mean the copula use) and jól is an adverb of manner you can't use it to describe nouns.
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That should be how 'good' (adjective) and 'well' (adverb) work in English too, we just have to learn English first!
Does Duo realise that this lesson is listed even before Basics 1? No wonder I am struggling.
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!).
This is really interesting for me to learn. I lived in Hungary for a year and a half and I never heard someone say "Nincs jól" to say that someone wasn't well.
Megfázott was the most common, but it has been nearly six years since I lived in Hungary, so now that I think about it, I might’ve heard “Nincs jol” and just forgotten.
He's not well. Not accepted which, after all the time this question must have existed, is quite staggering. Definitely reported!
A word starting with n followed by a vowel is quite common for a negative (Roman 'non', Spanish 'no', Russian 'Nyet', Hindi 'Nahim', etc.). Greek is a bit of an outlier -- as Ancient Greek used (if I remember correctly) 'ου' or 'με' (depending on whether a noun or a verb is negated) or 'οχι' in Modern Greek.