"A székek és asztalok az ablaknál vannak."

Translation: The chairs and tables are by the window.

[guilth]

the second "the" is optional, isn't it?

[Arcaeca]

It is, and it's a completely stupid reason to have it counted wrong. This whole lesson is dishearteningly and frustratingly full of bugs.

[bnyugat]

You took the words right out of my mouth!

[mizinamo]

Is székek és asztalok the usual word order in Hungarian?

In English, "tables and chairs" sounds more natural to me than "chairs and tables"... a bit like "cats and dogs" or "salt and pepper" which kind of have a conventional order of the two.

[LaineyHitch]

Word order is strange in duo lingo, it's very unnatural and yet it gets marked as incorrect if the list order is changed. Surely it doesn't change the meaning to adjust the order to a more natural one.

[RayRay71625]

The marking is too strict. It should also allow for a natural word ordering during translation. It should be OK to say (a székek és asztalok) = (the tables and chairs) = (the chairs and tables). The meaning is the same, as the stuff befween the parentheses is what is by the window. Just a thought.

[guntunge]

I tried: There are chairs and tables by the window

I certainly did remove "the" but isn't the meaning the same?

[mizinamo]

No -- "the chairs and tables" is not the same as "chairs and tables".

In one case, you are speaking of chairs and tables that are known to the listener; in the other case, you are providing new information.

[guntunge]

So if the Hungarian sentence would not have the article, i would not have missed the mark? Or then also no there construction needed?

[mizinamo]

I'm less sure about that -- it's been a while since I worked on the Hungarian tree regularly.

I think that would have used a different word order as well as omitting the article: Az ablaknál székek és asztalok vannak.

But don't quote me on that.

[Jarek791896]

There are the chairs and the tables by the window - it is not accepted.

[sImQfWat]

Again, my natural English was marked wrong. Fair enough, it's word association but if you actually said "chairs and tables" in the real world you would be looked at like a crazy person.

[jzsuzsi]

What was your solution?

[sImQfWat]

The tables and chairs are by the window.

[GregWood15]

Is it normal for the Hungarian to not to include a definite article before "asztalok", having one before "székek"?

Certainly the English wouldn't use a definite article before tables here (the one before "chairs" would apply to the tables as well - I suspect this changed in response to guilth's comment), but I thought Hungarian was different in this respect.

[Jhakey1]

Next to? By? Same difference

[GregWood15]

But they're using "by" to correspond to "-nál" and "next to" and "beside" to correspond to "mellett".