"Who wants the beer?"
Translation:Ki kéri a sört?
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For some reason I forgot to take into account this specific context in my earlier comment.
"Kér" is perfectly fine here, and more common than "akar". In such sentences -- even though that's the literal translation -- it isn't really understood as "to ask for" by natives, more like "to want" or "to desire".
- "Kéred ezt a kekszet?" -- "Do you want this biscuit?"
- "Ki kér húslevest?" -- "Who wants some broth?"
- "Melyik tollat kéred?" -- "Which pen do you want?"
It's still more polite than "akar", but also more common.
I would certainly translate all of the above examples with "want" replaced by "would like". "Would you like this biscuit? "Who would like some broth?" "Which pen would you like?" I recognize that the direct translation of "would like" is "szeretne", and that you can even do e.g. "Ki szeretne húslevest kérni". I still think that "want" is a poor translation of "kér". FWIW, e.g. szotar.sztaki.hu doesn't list "want" among its translations of "kér", though the ordering there is also sometimes a bit funny.
Yes, you are right. Actually I used "would like" in all of those examples at first, then decided against it, not wanting to bring in the conditional.
I don't think "Ki szeretne húslevest kérni?" would be used. "Szeretne" and "kér" together are redundant, even if you're very polite.
After re-reading my examples I'm on the opinion that it's "who wants something" that translates to "ki kér(i)". "Akar" fits more or less well into my first and third examples, but not into the second one and Duo's sentence. "Ki akarja a sört?" and "Ki akar húslevest?" are both correct, but don't feel natural to me. "Kér" is pretty neutral in these sentences (possibly the most neutral option), not necessarily implying politeness.
1037
I disagree. Where you would use "who wants a beer" in English you would use "Ki kéri a sört?" in Hungarian. A word by word translation does always work between two languages. "Ki akarja a sört?" translates more to "who is (the ignorant sod) demanding a beer?"
1037
No it isn't correct. Question words must always precede the verb unless there is a really good reason why not.