"Elmegyünk a városba, és a híres épületek előtt fényképezünk."

Translation: We go to the city, and we take photos in front of the famous buildings.

[metaphorikelly]

I wrote, "We are going away to the city ..." — which was wrong, even though DuoLingo shows elmegyünk as "going away." I know it also means just going. But I was imagining this sentence was describing a trip to the city. Very confusing.

[whizza]

I don't understand the difference here between "elmegyünk" and "megyünk", can any native Hungarian speakers comment on the difference in how the sentence would be perceived with and without the verbal prefix?

[Shamarth]

As Hungarian doesn't have continuous tenses, often the prefixes show the difference between an activity that is in progress and an activity that gets finished. I think this is what applies here too.

I would say "megyünk a városba", if I was, for example, in the car with other people, heading towards the city, and a friend called me and asked me where I am or what I'm doing.

And I'd use "elmegyünk a városba", if I wanted the focus on the result, that is, being in the city. We have to be in the city to be able to take photos there. The importance of going there is the result, not the action itself, so the prefix is used to express this.

I hope this was understandable.

[carolgoslen]

I do not understand why "taking pictures" is not accepted as a translation. I rarely say or hear anyone say "taking photos", it is usually "taking pictures".

[niko489445]

The fun thing is, this actually means we take photos in front of the buildings, but not of them, nor of ourselves.

[guntunge]

Is it mutually exclusive? I don't understand it that way.

[Richard604037]

It wouldn't accept present continuous and I suspect that's a programme error. It wouldn't accept "We are going to the city and taking photos in front of the famous buildings." I don't think that answer is wrong.