"I do not want to see ice."
Translation:Nem akarok jeget látni.
13 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
324
"Nem akarok jeget látni." adds focus to "jeget" in the phrase "jeget látni". I think of it as a sub-statement, with the main sentence being "I don't want something" and that something is "to see ice". While the focus of the main statement is on "Nem", there is room in the sub-statement for another focus.
I think you'd agree that focus is better placed on "jeget" than "látni".
Elsewhere there is the translation for "I don't like to get up early.", being "Nem szeretek korán kelni.". That is the same sort of thing.
With the "látni" at the end it sounds much cooler in my opinion, and it's also the correct way to say it.
Kérek is "I ask for"/"I am asking for" grammatically, so you can't use it in situations where "ask for" doesn't fit grammatically. "I'm not asking for seeing ice"? Now it's at least as awkward in Hungarian as well. Kér is barely used with infinitives.
What of "Jeget nem akarok látni"? As in, "I don't want to see ice (instead, I want to see something else)"?
That would rather be "Nem jeget akarok látni". "I want to see... not ice but something else". "Jeget nem akarok látni" sounds like "Ice, now that I don't want to see". Topic, rather than focus. You don't imply you want to see something else, you are just making clear you're gonna talk about ice and you say something about it.
How do you know when the verb and the negation are separated versus together? I would that that "Nem jeget" would emphasize not ice, where as "Nem akarok" emphasizes the desire. Is this wrong?
Yes, it depends on your intention. "Nem jeget akarok látni" - I do want to see something, just not ice. vs "Nem akarok jeget látni" - I don't want to see ice (and I don't imply anything about other things).
