- Forum >
- Topic: Hungarian >
- "Small and big ships sail on …
"Small and big ships sail on the deep seas."
Translation:A mély tengereken kis és nagy hajók úsznak.
34 Comments
The literal translation of the word "sail" is vitorlaz. If you mean Mennek, you should say the ships go, or travel.
I would agree with this, I thought that a ship "vitorlázik", not that it "swims".
Well, what other verb would you use then? I find úsznak a lot more natural than vitorláznak. And mennek is far too... simple.
216
Yes (?), 'uszni' is what Duo wants, but it's very poor.
'Sailing' works in English, b/c it has become the common reference from the days of the 'tall ships' - before engines.
'Vitorlazik' does not work in Hungarian, b/c it has remained to mean only wind-driven sails (although it also means 'floating'). Duo had to find an alternate translation. I suggested 'navigalni' (to navigate)
True, but we still talk about "sailing"....
Don't we also still "hang up" the phone and "dial" a number even though the receiver does not hang anywhere nor is there a round dial?
- 216
Precisely.
The literal translation of "sailing" doesn't work. But ships SWIMMING??? Is that REALLY better? (hey, hey, I know that one! -- No.).
How about 'navigating'?
We use 'kis' when you want to say something like: ' Can I have a little salt?' or 'here is the little girl' (kaphatok egy kis sót?, itt a kislány) And we use kicsi when we want to say 'the girl is small', or 'my shoe is too small' (a lány kicsi, a cipőm túl kicsi) So 'kicsi' is something like small, and 'kis' is like little, but sometimes we mix it up For example: I need a little salt can mean that 'Kell nekem egy kis só' (it is better I think) but it can also mean that 'kell nekem egy kicsi só' (It is just a little bit weird but that's not a big deal). But sometimes we just can't mix them up 'cause it would be very weird, like "my shoe is too little"-"a cipőm túl kis". Do you see? It sounds weird.
- 216
absolutely right.
It's a matter of usage, that is too hard (impossible?) to learn by studying, but comes naturally by immersion (conversation, reading, movies, use, etc)
- 216
yeah, it sounds a bit strange, but really should be accepted. the difference is too small.
It's a correct sentence, though it means that small and big ships only sail on deep seas.
- Tegnap láttam egy kis és egy nagy hajót a folyón.
- De kis és nagy hajók a mély tengereken úsznak!
I get it- so my sentence is emphasising "small and big ships" and not "something else" sailing on the deep seas.
I think my comment was ambiguous or I messed up the English word order. I meant that big and small ships sail on the deep seas and not somewhere else. It might help to get familiar with the parts of the sentence called topic and focus.
The phrase that starts the sentence (in yours: "kis és nagy hajók") is the topic. This is what you will form a statement about in the rest of the sentence.
The phrase preceding the conjugated verb (in your sentence: "a mély tengereken") is the focus. The focus is the element that excludes every other element of the same cathegory; in this case any place other than the deep seas is excluded.
This is not valid for all possible sentences, since it's not obligatory to include a topic and/or a focus, but it can be helpful when you're experimenting with word order and how it changes the meaning.
Your word order was fine, the italic threw me! (italicising "deep seas" would have been clearer). Thanks for such a good explanation of topic/focus- I think I get it now!
A hajók nem nagyon úsznak. Az emberek, vagy az állatok úsznak de a hétköznapi nyelvben nem igazán használják ezt.
Mondhatod így de nagyon furán hangzik.
Ismét csak azt tudom mondani, hogy számomra teljesen természetes ez a kifejezés, sőt, el sem tudom képzelni, hogyan lehetne természetesebben megfogalmazni.
Ez igaz, talan a 'hajózni' igét gyakrabban használjuk, bár itt általban az ember az aki a cselekvést végzi...
You can't say ships swim, but hajók úsznak is natural. I'd say that makes it appropriate to translate sail as úszik in this context.
- 216
no (somebody above convinced me), but it should be accepted, b/c 1) the difference is too small, and 2) impossible to learn accept by immersion in the language (I think).
“Mély” means deep. “A mélyek” means “the deep ones” but using tengerek after that doesn’t create a correct anything that I know of personally.
