"There are no birds on this dry tree."

Translation: Ezen a száraz fán nincsenek madarak.

[Shamarth]

To make things clear: the correct English sentence is "There are no birds in this dry tree." Simply because that's what they say in English when birds are sitting on the branches of a tree.

In Hungarian we express the same thing with "Ezen a száraz fán nincsenek madarak." The birds are, again, sitting on the branches of the tree (well, they aren't... you get what I mean)

"Ebben a fában", which is the literal translation of "in the tree", means something else: inside the tree. In its trunk.

If something is incorrect or unclear in this explanation, tell me, and I'll edit it accordingly.

[_paranoia_]

In my opinion, it is also correct to say that there are no birds on the tree, although I agree that I'd be more likely to say that there are no birds in the tree.

[Evolita]

Thank you, Shamarth, well done! Here we go, enjoy 2 lingots. I assume, you're one of the writers? It's interesting that the English for Hungarian speakers is so much different almost too simple while this one has a few complicated smart-a.. sentences we had a hard time wrapping our brains around. It seems like both in Beta test but the English has been diligently weeded out, there were less mistakes. Thank you for your good work!

[Bastette54]

I'm glad you said that "ebben a fában" means literally inside the tree, because I was confused - I'd written that in my translation and it was rejected. Now I know why. I get some of the endings, especially when combined with ez or az, mixed up.

[Evolita]

Bastette please read the other comments

[Bastette54]

I did!

[Evolita]

Birds like to hang out IN the tree... not on it

[spiraldancing]

Suggestions to improve the course should be reported with the "Report a problem" button. The course developers may never see your comment here.

[Evolita]

Of course I've done that already. AMF, I have reported so many mistakes that I'm sure they are getting hives when they see my name popping up. :-)

[Benjiii1989]

Why isn't it "ebben a szaraz..." ?

[Shamarth]

While birds are in the tree in English, they are on it in Hungarian. "A fában" would mean inside the trunk of the tree.

[Heroldnak]

It is interesting what Shamarth pointed out. I am fluent in english, but it isn't my native tongue. When translating, I correctly pointed "on this dry tree" because that is how we "think" in portuguese too.

Just learned another thing in english too... Would never say "in the tree" before. It would sound like "in the trunk".

Lost in translation...