19 Comments
"You lie down here by the water and rest" is how we would say this in English
215
No, never. Víz is a front-vowel word, so it takes front-vowel suffixes. Víznél in this case.
In the above sentence, only vízhez is appropriate, since you're moving towards the water.
- 215
English has difficulties combining static verbs (like "sit", "stand", "lie") with directional markers, especially "to". So saying "I lie down to the river" is ungrammatical. Hungarian has no problem with it:
- Lefekszem a vízhez. - I am going to the water and lie down.
- Lefekszem a víznél. - I am already at the water and just lie down.
- A víznél fekszem. - I am (probably) already lying down, not moving.
The original Hungarian sentence uses idefekszel. The prefix ide- tells you that you're doing a (horizontal) movement, so you need to use vízhez as well.
Now, for the English, as I said, "lying to" is ungrammatical, so you have to work around it somehow. The cleanest way to say that there is some movement involved is using "to lie down by". "You are lying down by the water" now can mean either that you're moving to the water or you were already by the water, so it can translate as "Lefekszel a vízhez" or "Lefekszel a víznél". There is no way to tell from just this one sentence. Likewise, "You are lying down here by the water", with a more precise location, can be translated as either "Idefekszel a vízhez" in case you still have to move to the water, or "Lefekszel itt a víznél" in the other case.
- 36
"You lie down by the water and you rest" was not accepted. I find that incredible.
duo just accepted: you lie here at the water and rest . . .
Big 11 mar 19
We're all agreed that the English here is grotty at best.
Question about the Hungarian -- what is the different between these two?
- Idefekszel a vízhez és pihensz.
- Idefekszel a víznél és pihensz.
The second one is a match for the only correct English grammar here: "You lie down by the water and rest." What is the difference in sense when using -hez instead of -nél?
Since there is movement -HEZ is appropriate. Once there and settled, use -NÉL.
I dont agree. The English sentence seems perfectly intelligible. Whats the problem?
The English has since been fixed. The issue that previous posts were reacting to (or referencing) was the formerly incorrect English:
- You lie down to the water and rest.
The Duolingo editors have since changed the "to" to "by".
Ok makes sense... you're right, that was a rather ugly way of putting it in English!
- 157
True,but it'it's because they always used "to" fir "..hez" and "by" for "nel". What is the difference?
