- Forum >
- Topic: Hungarian >
- "that is big and heavy"
"that is big and heavy"
Translation:ami nagy és nehéz
8 Comments
2079
"that is big and heavy" should be understood as a subordinate clause. But it can be a main clause as well.
Wouldn't it be better to create a correct sentence like: "The one, that is big and heavy"?
Exactly. I just put "Az nagy és nehéz" since it's not at all made clear by the English sentence that this is intended as a subordinate clause.
- 176
The DL example does not use punctuation or capitalization, and it is part of a unit teaching relative clauses. So I think we can accept that this is intended as a subordinate clause fragment. If your sentence had been intended, the DL cue would be: 'That is big and heavy.'
- 246
I see that subordinate clauses don't start with a capital letter, but isn't 'that' hogy?
- 176
-
A subordinate clause at the beginning of a complete sentence will start with a capital letter. (But here we have a fragment, not a complete sentence.)
-
English uses the word "that" in a number of different ways, and you usually need a different word in Hungarian (or any other language) when translating each kind of English "that".
For example, in "A clock that is big and heavy", the word "that" is a relative pronoun, and you can translate it using "ami", as in the DL exercise here.
But in "that man is a soldier", the word "that" is a demonstrative pronoun, and you would translate it as "az".
The main meaning of "hogy" is "how". For example:
Hogy vagy? = How are you?
But "hogy" can also be a subordinating conjunction (not relative pronoun) that can be translated into English using "that". For example:
Látom, hogy itt vagy = I see that you are here.
Study the following sentences:
1. I see the box that is here.
2. I see that the box is here.
In 1, "that" is a relative pronoun (ami, etc.). In 2, "that" is a subordinating conjunction (hogy).
My answer: amelyik nagy es nehez - that and which are often interchangeable in English. We do not have a context in the Hungarian. To distinguish between or among more than one item, one could say in common oral sentence: The one that is big and heavy- or-the one which is big and heavy. While if you were describing a specific item it would be: That (thing) is big and heavy.
