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- "Where is the actress waiting…
"Where is the actress waiting?"
Translation:Hol vár a színésznő?
9 Comments
I've noticed this is the case with "Mi(t) van" as well. Does this go for all question word & verb pairings?
Yes! The most important question words are mi, ki, hol, mikor, miért and hogy/hogyan (what, who, where, when, why, and how) and they all want to go immediately before the verb.
Not only that, the answer to such a question will have a parallel form. I mean, the answer to the question word ordinarily has to come in the same place as the question word - right before the verb. The order of the rest of the sentence might change a little just for basically aesthetic reasons (what flows well).
It's common, but not essential, to put the question word first in the questioning sentence, just like English - I think the reason for this is just that you want to let the listener know as soon as possible that you're starting a question. A typical rearrangement in the answer might be to move the subject of the sentence to the front. Answers to miért are a little different since the answer to a "why" question is usually not a single word or phrase, but a more extended structure.
Here are some examples with full sentence answers to questions (of course, shorter answers would be possible):
Hol vár a színésznő? A színésznő a színházban vár. (Where? In the theater.)
Mit eszik a farkas? A farkas húst eszik (What? Meat.)
Ki áll a tábla előtt? A tanár áll a tábla előtt (Who? The teacher)
Mikor kezdődik a film? Nyolckor kezdődik a film. (When? At eight o'clock.)
And so on.
This is useful for a couple of reasons. One is, in conversation, if somebody asks you a question you can usually copy their sentence structure so you don't have to think about building your own sentence. Another reason is that it can help you decide on word order even when you're making a statement. If you imagine what question your statement is supposed to answer for the listene, it will tell you what word should come before the verb to receive the focus.
(Like any language rule, we could cook up some exceptions where the question word is separated from the verb, but this basic sentence pattern is a very solid one.)
Fantastic! This all makes so much sense. I better understand now the logic behind some of the sentences I've been seeing. Have some lingots... köszönöm szépen!
In a way perhaps, but I would say that even then that is like translating "human" as "animal" or "blue" as "colour". It is much less specific.
